Anand to be World No. 1

[netfree]

Anand wins Linares crown, to be World No 1

Linares: Viswanathan Anand drew with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the final round of the prestigious Morelia-Linares chess tournament in Linares to clinch the title with a tally of 8.5 points from 14 rounds.

Anand's main challenger, the 16-year-old emerging genius Magnus Carlsen of Norway, needed a win in the final round to draw level, but he couldn't even muster that as he went down to Peter Leko of Hungary, who had the advantage of playing with white pieces.

World number 1 Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria also ended his campaign with a draw to end seventh in the eight-man tournament with only six points to his name.

In the only other tie to yield a result, Alexander Morozevich of Russia beat countryman Peter Svidler to claim third spot.

Anand last won in Linares in 1998 and will be the World Number One for the first time ever on the FIDE ratings charts, when they are released on April 1, following this result.

Current World Number One Topalov, who led Anand by 4 Elo points - 2783 to 2779 - will move down to second after his disappointing showing.

Anand registered four wins during the course of his campaign at the event that started at Morelia in Mexico in mid-February. His lone loss came against Armenian Levon Aronian. He drew each of his remaining nine ties.