World Rapid chess champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Grandmaster Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the blindfold game in the second round of 13th Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament in Monaco on Sunday.
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The lead position is now shared by Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Peter Leko of Hungary.
Anand opted for a slightly inferior plan in the middle game that proved costly as Topalov knocked down two pawns to get a winning opposite-colour Bishop endgame.
Anand is to play Topalov in the rapid version later in the day.
Results Round 2 Blindfold: Evgeny Bareev (Rus) lost to Peter Svidler (Rus); Veselin Topalov (Bul) beat Viswanathan Anand (Ind); Francisco Vallejo Pons (Esp) drew with Loek Van Wely (Ned); Peter leko (Hun) beat Alexander Morozevich (Rus); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus); Boris Gelfand (Isr) lost to Alexei Shirov.
Standings after Round 2.1: 1-2: Kramnik, Leko 2.5 each; 3-6: Bareev, Morozevich, Svidler Topalov 2 each; 7-8: Van wely, Shirov 1.5 each; 9: Anand 1; 10-11: Ivanchuk, Vallejo 0.5 each; 12: Gelfand 0.