Viswanathan Anand wins World Chess Championship

30 Sep 2007, 0218 hrs IST

MEXICO CITY: Indian chess player Vishwanathan Anand became the game's world champion on Saturday, winning the global tournament in Mexico. Anand, 37, replaced Vladimir Kramnik of Russia as champion, winning the tournament on points after tying a match with Hungarian Peter Leko on the 14th day of the contest, which he dominated from the start.

The Israeli Boris Gelfand was meanwhile fighting it out to win second place over Kramnik, who saw the championship slip from his grasp on Friday after a tied match. Gelfand, 39, was looking to clinch second place through his Saturday match with Alexander Morozevich of Russia. Eight of the world's top chess brains had met in Mexico for the competition. Key players such as the world number two, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, did not make it through the championship's complex qualification process. Anand came close to defeat on Friday but managed to tie his five-hour game with another Russian, Alexander Grischuk. He would have won the tournament immediately if he had beaten Grischuk.

The Indian had previously won the world championship in 2000, but the achievement was valued less since at the time the chess world was split between two rival world titles.

(http://www.timesofindia.com/)