Viswanathan Anand suffered a major setback, going down to Russian Alexander Morozevich in the blindfold game in the seventh round of Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament in Monaco on Saturday.
The loss proved costly for Anand, as the Indian also lost the joint lead and paved way for Evgeny Bareev of Russia to emerge sole leader on 8.5 points following his draw with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.
Anand, Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Hungarian Peter Leko all have eight points apiece.
Another half a point adrift are Peter Svidler of Russia and Ivanchuk while Morozevich improved his position to sole seventh after a nail-biting victory over Anand.
Up against the French defence for the second day in succession as white, Anand went for a direct attack against Morozevich. The middle game was extremely complicated where Anand went for a piece sacrifice that certainly appeared promising.
However, Morozevich came up with tactical resources and upset the rhythm of the Indian. After the dust settled, Morozevich had steered his king out of danger and had an extra piece to boast off. The game lasted 46 moves.
Kramnik was the only other winner of this round. On the receiving end was Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain who proved no match and succumbed in just 26 moves from the white side of a Sicilian Nazdorf.