Anand beats Giri to finish third

World champion Viswanathan Anand crashed through the defenses of Dutch youngster Anish Giri and finished third in the combined standings of the 20th and final Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament in Moncao on Friday.

For the first time in the tournament, Anand won both games, the blindfold and rapid, making it impossible for his nearest rivals to breach his second spot in the blindfold and third in the combined standings.

Levon Aronian of Armenia expectantly won the event, settling for two draws against Russia's Sergey Karjakin in the final round.

Aronian, who enjoyed a full point lead coming into the final round, had it easy, and after Magnus Carlsen went down in the blindfold game against Boris Gelfand of Israel, the Armenian was set to win his third Amber title.

Aronian scored 15.5 points and remained a full point ahead of Carlsen in the overall standings.

Anand finished third on 13 points in the 12-players double round-robin event.

The top three were class apart from the rest, as fourth place was shared between Alexander Grischuk of Russia and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, who tallied 11 points.

Aronian won the blindfold section, which was a mere formality anyway, finishing 1.5 points more than Anand while Carlsen won the rapid with a record 9.5 points.

Aronian also got second place in the rapid section while Anand finished joint third along with Ivanchuk and his last World championship challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

Anish Giri repeated an opening in his blindfold game against Anand that his second Loek van Wely had played against the Indian ace in the 2006 Amber tournament.

Playing the English opening Giri deviated on the 10th move and introduced his new idea one move later. An interesting battle developed in which white had space, but an awkward king, and Anand wanting to develop counter play on the queenside as soon as possible.

Giri went astray on move 20 after which both players agreed he was essentially lost. White's position quickly fell apart and after 27 moves when loss of a rook was imminent, Giri resigned.

Anand also won the rapid game. It was a Petroff, wherein Anand didn't go for an impressive set up in his own words... Giri's 20th move was a clear mistake. White won a pawn and when Black missed his last chance to get any play on move 27, the young Dutchman was fighting a hopeless battle.

Interestingly, Giri ended his Amber the way it had began for him: a 2-0 loss against eventual winner Aronian.

Results (final round blindfold): Anish Giri (Ned) lost to V Anand (Ind); Magnus Carslen (Nor) lost to Boris Gefland (Isr); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul); Vugar Gashimov (Aze) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus); Levon Aronian (Arm) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Ukr); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa) lost to Vladimir Kramnik (Rus).

Rapid: Anand beat Giri; Gelfand lost to Carlsen; Topalov beat Ivanchuk; Grischuk drew with Gashimov; Karjakin drew with Aronian; Kramnik lost to Nakamura.

Combined standings: 1. Aronian 15.5; 2. Calrsen 14.5; 3. Anand 13; 4-5. Grischuk, Ivanchuk 11each; 6-9. Gashimov, Gelfand, Nakamura, Topalov 10.5 each; 10. Karjakin 10; 11. Kramnik 8; 12. Giri 7.

Blindfold standings: 1. Aronian 8.5; 2. Anand 7: 3-5. Gashimov, Gelfand, Grischuk 6 each; 6. Karjakin 5.5; 7-9. Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Nakamura 7 each; 10. Topalov 4.5; 11. Kramnik 4; 12. Giri 3.5.

Rapid standings: 1. Carlsen 9.5; 2. Aronian 7; 3-5. Anand, Ivanchuk, Topalov 6 each; 6. Nakamura 5.5; 7. Grischuk 5; 8-10. Gashimov, Gelfand, Karjakin 4.5 each; 11. Kramnik 4.5; 12. Giri 3.5.