Viswanathan Anand makes stunning comeback to defeat Veselin Topalov in London

Anand fought back against his long-time rival Topalov (Image courtesy – Ray Morris-Hill)

After a stinging defeat to Hikaru Nakamura in Round 4 of the ongoing London Chess Classic, Viswanathan Anand made a wonderful comeback in Round 5 to beat old rival Veselin Topalov in a tight endgame and rekindle hopes of winning the tournament with four rounds to go.

After a long and hard-fought battle, Anand managed to outplay his Bulgarian opponent in textbook manner, showcasing some brilliant technical skills, which forced Topalov to resign after 74 moves.

It was just yesterday that the world got to know that the Indian Grandmaster’s family is in Chennai, and have opened their home to nearby slum-dwellers in the wake of the devastating floods that have hit the city.

His win is made sweeter by this fact and also by the fact that Vishy managed to pull off a brilliant victory against an opponent who he knows all too well.

It was a rematch of the 2010 World Championship, where Anand had successfully defended his crown against Topalov. The game began with a Najdorf-Sicilian and Anand managed to get a slight advantage from the opening. He displayed tremendous technique and skill to push his opponent back and never allowed him to make a comeback into the game.

Anand showed great technique to register his first win of the tournament

It was a long and hard-fought battle as Topalov tried his best to force the Indian maestro into a mistake.

Both players were equal on material but Anand’s knight held the key to his victory as Topalov’s bishop remained mostly passive. It took a large amount of time for Anand to break through his opponent’s defence as the game went on till late at night and a commentator had to leave the venue as his car’s parking lot was scheduled to close at 10.30 pm!

Anand held on for the win with some expert manoeuvring in the endgame, which brings him to 2.5 points out of a possible 5. All other games in the round were drawn, with Fabio Caruana missing out on a 46. Qg6 move, which could have won him the game against Russian Alexander Grischuk. Amazingly, both players later admitted that they had not foreseen that move and the game ended with the points split between the two players

With four rounds to go, nine out of the ten players will still be fancying their chances of winning this prestigious tournament. Anand faces Grischuk in Round 6 while the standout game from the round will surely be between the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and the prodigious Anish Giri.