On a day of shocks, India's Viswanathan Anand went down to Hungarian Peter Leko in the second round of the Corus Grandmasters chess tournment at the De Moriaan Hall in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Kramnik lost his game in a mere 20 moves to Veselin Topalov, in the fastest ever loss for Kramnik.
Peter Leko dealt defending champion Anand a big blow. Despite his habit of playing too many draws, Leko has now become one of the toughest players in the world. Here he proved very troublesome to the world number two.
It was a Sicilian Sveshnikov and Anand seemed to have taken up the challenge. Though Anand (white) was a pawn up and the computer showed him better, Black (Leko) had a very dangerous initiative. Leko was already better on move 22 when he found the idea of putting his queen on d6, the bishop on c8 and follow up with d4 with a good continuation.
Anand spent a long time on this move trying to find a safe way to a draw. Anand missed a line and may have lost it when he played 27. Bc4+ (check).
Anand continued till the 57th move trying to find a way out of trouble, but Leko gave him no chance and the defending champion suffered a rare loss in Wijk Aan Zee.
Kramnik's ratings had dropped and Topalov had climbed to No. 3 behind Garry Kasparov and Anand. Now Topalov showed that he was worthy of that by beating Kramnik.
In a Sicilian Najdorf, Kramnik was countered a novelty by Topalov on 11th move. Kramnik played erratcially and resigned when he was two pawns down.
Michael Adams, half a point behind the winner Anand last year, punished unsound play from Alexander Morozevich with innovative tactics.
In the third round, Anand plays Nigel Short of England.
Corus A Round 3 pairings: Bruzon v Adams, Leko v Svidler, Morozevich v Grischuk, Polgar v Kramnik, Short v Anand, Sokolov v Ponomariov, Topalov v Van Wely.
Corus A Round 2: Adams beat Morozevich; Ponomariov beat Polgar; Grischuk drew with Short; Van Wely drew with Bruzon; Anand lost to Leko; Kramnik lost to Topalov; Svidler drew with Sokolov.
Corus A Standings after Round 2: 1. Topalov 2.0; 2. Adams and Leko 1.5; 4. Short, Sokolov, Ponomariov, Grischuk, Bruzon, Van Wely and Polgar 1.0 each; 11. Anand, Morozevich, Kramnik and Svidler 0.5 each.