Anand completes 'Perfect 10'; beats Aronian in final

Mainz, Aug 20 (UNI) Reigning World champion Viswanathan Anand made it a 'perfect 10' as he clinched the Grenke Leasing World Rapid Chess Championships and in the process avenged his defeat at the hands of Lev Aronian, who had beaten the Indian ace in the final of the Chess960 format.

Anand, beat Aronian in the fourth and last match of the final, after the first three ended in a draw. Anand thus got 2.5 against the Armenian 1.5 points.

The Indian Grandmaster has become the most successful player in the history of Chess Classic at Mainz, having won the chamionship 10 times here.

Both Anand and Aronian clashed three days earlier at the finals of the FiNet Chess960 World championship. In that match Aronian scored over the Indian Grandmaster.

The duo preparing for the World Championships in Mexico clashed again, this time Anand prevailed over the eighth ranked Armenian.

The pair played Ruy Lopez style similar to a game from the preliminary but while Anand was better in that game, he failed to get anything out of the opening and quickly agreed to a draw.

In the second game, Aronian's pair of bishops fought two knights.

Yet the Armenian gave Anand no more than a pawn and kept his bishops to compensate for his material disadvantage.

However, when Anand neutralized white's pressure and Aronian had only 30 seconds left against Anand's seven minutes, the Indian Grandmaster looked winning but then suddenly agreed to a draw.

The third game it was revealed how much respect both the finalist had for each other and how careful they were to avoid the risk of losing or to reveal any secrets. They again repeated the Ruy Lopez style.

But again Anand failed to capitalise and the game moved to a insipid draw.

The fourth and decisive game between Anand and Aronian started off quietly but ended dramatically.

Anand, playing with black, managed to equalize after the opening to reach a position, which did not offer much chances to either side. Aronian, probably tired, suddenly began making mistakes and also fell behind on the clock. His weakness, the pawn on a3, was in real danger and when it fell, Anand seemed to be well on his way to keep his title of Rapid World Champion.

While Aronian had saved himself in some bad positions, this time Anand went for the kill and drove his advantage home to win his 10th title in Mainz.

After the win, a jublient Anand spoke to UNI ''I am very happy to lift the title for a record 10th time. This was a very tiring championship as I have to play 14 games with Aronian but I am happy to win. In my last game Aronian was better in the opening but as the game developed and my knights became more powerful blocking all his pieces, there was no other way left for him.'' In the prelims, Anand won two and drew one game on the first day, and then drew all three on the second day to finish with four points out of a possible six. Aronian was second with 3.5.

Kasimdzhanov and Bacrot were third and fourth and fought for the third placing match. Bacrot won the first game and lost the third and the second and fourth games were drawn and with no tie-breaker being played, the title was shared.

Anand had earlier topped the preliminaries in which apart from Anand and Aronian, there was also Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Etienne Bacrot.

UNI