Viswanathan Anand retains World Chess title

Bonn, Oct 30 : Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand retained the World Chess Championship title in Bonn late on Wednesday night after ending the 11th game with Russia's Vladimir Kramnik in a draw.

Anand had earlier won the Championship in 2000 and 2007.

Anand won three games, drew seven times and lost once en route to winning the competition by 6.5 points to 4.5.

With this win, he became the first player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats: Knockout, Tournament and Match.

He will next defend his title in the World Chess Championship 2009 against the winner of the challenger match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky.

Anand is one of four players in history to break the 2800-mark on the FIDE rating list. He was on the top of the world-rating list five out of six times from April 2007 to July 2008. In October 2008, he dropped out of the world top 3 for the first time since July 1996.

In 2007, he was awarded the second highest Indian civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. He is also the first recipient of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991-92, the country's highest sporting honour.

ANI