Viswanathan Anand had to be content with the third place finish after being held to a draw by former World Champion Ruslan Ponamariov in the 10th and final round, while Veselin Topalov lived up to his top billing to clinch the Mtel Masters Chess title for second year in a row in Sofia.
The Indian ace, who was hoping to displace Topalov from the world number one rank after a good start that fetched him two points from the first two games itself, will look forward to another opportunity to go beyond Topalov in the FIDE rating list -- a feat that has thus far eluded him.
Anand finished with 5.5 points winning three, drawing six and losing two games in the event.
The victories for Anand came in the first half only when he beat Etienne Bacrot, Topalov and Ponomariov of Russia while a loss against his old-nemesis Gata Kamsky in the third round of the tournament and a subsequent loss of a point against Topalov in their return game proved too costly for the Indian.
Topalov came up with yet another masterpiece to beat Bacrot of France to lift the title on his home turf.
Topalov finished with an eventual score of 6.5 points in all, bettering nearest contender Kamsky of the US by a half point margin after the latter was involved in a drawn game against Russian Peter Svidler, who ended up being forth.
Svidler played solidly to end on a 50 per cent score while Ponomariov and Bacrot finished joint fifth in the six-players double round-robin event ending on an identical score of 3.5 points each.
Results final round: Veselin Topalov (Bul, 6.5) beat Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 3.5); Peter Svidler (Rus, 5) drew with Gata Kamsky (USA, 6); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 3.5 ) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 5.5).
Final Standings: 1. Topalov 6.5; 2. Kamsky 6; 3. Anand 5.5; 4. Svidler 5; 5-6. Bacrot, Ponomariov 3.5 each.
The moves:
Ruslan Ponomariov v/s V Anand: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. Nc3 Bb7 5. a3 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Qc2 Nxc3 8. bxc3 c5 9. e4 Nc6 10. Be3 cxd4 11. cxd4 Rc8 12. Qa2 Bd6 13. Bd3 O-O 14. O-O Ne7 15. Rfc1 Ng6 16. g3 Qe7 17. a4 Bb4 18. h4 Rfd8 19. h5 Nf8 20. h6 gxh6 21. Rxc8 Rxc8 22. Rd1 h5 23. d5 exd5 24. exd5 Ng6 25. Ng5 Rd8 26. Bf5 Qf6 27. Bh3 Bc5 28. Bxc5 Qxg5 29. Be3 Qe5 30. Bg2 h4 31. a5 hxg3 32. axb6 axb6 33. Bxb6 Qh5 34. Rd3 Ra8 35. Ra3 Rxa3 36. Qxa3 Qd1+ 37. Bf1 gxf2+ 38. Kxf2 Qxd5 39. Qe3 Qf5+ 40. Ke1 Be4 41. Bd4 Qe6 42. Kf2 f6 43. Qg3 Qf5+ 44. Ke1 Qa5+ 45. Qc3 Qxc3+ 46. Bxc3 Kg7 47. Be2 Ne5 48. Kf2 Kg6 49. Kg3 Nf7 50. Bc4 Nd6 51. Be6 Bf5 52. Bd5 Ne4+ 53. Bxe4 Bxe4 draw agreed.