Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand drew his game against Alexander Morozevich in the penultimate round of the World Chess Championship, played in San Luis, Argentina.
Anand shares the second place along with Peter Svidler, who has also scored eight points.
Topalov, with his unsurpassable score of 9.5 points from 13 games, emerged the new World chess champion, 2005.
The 14th round game will only be a formality for Topalov, while Anand and Svidler will have to fight it out for the second spot.
It was a difficult endgame against Kasimdzhanov that Topalov survived in the penultimate round game.
As a matter of fact there was no change in the standings after the 13th round as the remaining two games of the day also ended peacefully with Svidler taking it easy against Hungarian Judit Polgar and Brit Michael Adams settling for draw against another Hungarian Peter Leko.
With just one round to go Topalov, 9.5 points, cannot be caught by his rivals now as he has a 1.5 points lead. Anand and Svidler remained joint second on 8 points, Morozevich is next in line on 6.5 while Kasimdzhanov and Leko stand shared fifth on 5.5 points. Adams is seventh on 5 and Polgar is at the bottom of the tables on just 4 points in the million dollars championship.
Anand tried his best but Morozevich was quite up to the task in handling a direct attack against his king. The Winawer variation in the French defense has been Anand's pet for a long time and he went for the blood right from the word go in the engrossing encounter.
Starting off with a thematic Bishop sacrifice, Anand sacrificed another piece looking for checkmate that was not forthcoming. The Indian eventually sacrificed the queen also but all that remained was perpetual checks.
Topalov suffered for the major part against Kasimdzhanov but in the end some solid defense combined with a time exchange sacrifice bailed him out of his difficulties.
Playing the black aside of a Berlin defense, Topalov faced a recently popular variation, could not quite face the tormenting white rooks and lost a queenside pawn. However the position was never really lost with Bishops of opposite colours on board and slow and steady manoeuvring ensured Topalov some compensation.
It was on the 35th move that the Bulgarian came up with a spectacular exchange sacrifice that jolted Kasimdzhanov. It was quite bold as if Topalov had misjudged the position he would have been completely lost due to the material deficit.
However as it happened, white was soon driven to passivity and with black pawns ominously poised, Kasimdzhanov had to give the exchange back to force a draw in 42 moves.
The other two games of the day did not have much for the spectators. Judit Polgar continued her discussions in the Marshall gambit by Peter Svidler and did not succeed in finding anything concrete with her white pieces. After a long theoritical duel, the players reached an endgame wherein Svidler had no problems in securing the half point. The draw was agreed to in 39 moves.
Results round 13: Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb, 5.5) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 9.5); Judit Polgar (Hun, 4) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 8); Michael Adams (Eng, 5) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 5.5); Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 8) drew with Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 6.5).
Standings after round 13:
1. Veselin Topalov 9.5 pts
2. Viswanathan Anand 8 pts
3. Peter Svidler 8 pts
4. Alexander Morozevich 6 pts
5. Peter Leko 5.5 pts
6. Rustam Kasimdzhanov 5.5 pts
7. Michael Adams 5 pts
8. Judit Polgar 4 pts
Round 14 pairing: Veselin Topalov [BUL] vs Judit Polgar [HUN], Peter Leko [HUN] vs Rustam Kasimdzhanov [UZB], Alexander Morozevich [RUS] vs Michael Adams [ENG], Peter Svidler [RUS] vs Vishy Anand [IND]
Anand vs Morozevich: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Qd2 O-O 10.O-O-O a6 11.Nb3 Bb4 12.Bd3 b5 13.Rhf1 Nb6 14.a3 Be7 15.Nd4 Qc7 16.Nxc6 Qxc6 17.Bd4 Nc4 18.Qe2 Rb8 19.Bxh7+ Kxh7 20.Qh5+ Kg8 21.Rd3 f5 22.Rh3 Bc5 23.Rff3 Bxd4 24Rfg3 Rb7 25.Qh7+ Kf7 26.Qxg7+ Ke8 27.QxRf81/2- ½.