Viswanathan Anand underlined his superiority in the game once more as he outplayed Veselin Topalov 3-1 in the final of the Magistral Ciudad de Leon tournament.
The Indian ace won the second and fourth games with white pieces and drew the other two to grab the title in Leon for the seventh title in 12 years.
Anand has now twice won Leon title three times in a row. After his first title win in 1996, Anand was champion three times in a row from 1999 to 2001 and then again from 2005 to 2007.
Anand's record-breaking seventh win at Leon came around the same time as when Roger Federer was beating Rafal Nadal on way to his fifth Wimbledon title in England.
The last game was a masterpiece. Topalov trailing 1-2 after his loss in the second game, needed to win to take the match into tie-breaker. It was another Sicilian najdorf but with e6 this time. Anand sacrificed a piece on 14th but had three pawns for it and the pawns were connected.
As Anand played very adventurously Toplaov looked slightly better. But Anand offered a queen exchange which Topalov refused and Anand then regained initiative. Anand's two connected passed pawns were now unstoppable and he realized his opening plan of creating strong passed pawns.
Topalov was now lost and then Anand reeled off a series of superb moves. As it ended in 29 moves, it was a great game as Anand made a problematic piece sacrifice, but followed it with a lot of beautiful ideas and crushed Topalov.
The first game of the final was a Closed Ruy Lopez in which Topalov, with white, launched a vicious-looking kingside attack, which was coolly rebuffed by Anand, who forced a draw in 49 moves.
In the second game, a Sicilian Najdorf, Anand slowly outplayed his opponent, queened a pawn on b8 and took the full point on move 37.
After a nice pawn sacrifice in the opening, Topalov lost orientation and let Anand build a strong queenside pressure with his two knights. Anand then masterfully combined queenside attack and kingside defence and won a very good game in 37 moves.
This left Anand a point ahead of Topalov, who launched another Closed Ruy with kingside aggressions in game three. But once again Anand allowed nothing really dangerous to happen and the game was drawn in 38 moves.
With the score at 2-1 Topalov desperately needed to win the next game, with the black pieces but failed to achieve his objective.
The Cuidad de Leon tournament, now in its 20th edition, has been held in various formats, including a phase, from 1998 to 2002, when it was held as an "Advanced Chess" event with the players using computers during the games.
Topalov v Anand: Game 1
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. h3 d6 9. c3 Rb8 10. d3 Na5 11. Bc2 c5 12. Nbd2 Nc6 13. Nf1 Re8 14. a3 h6 15. Ng3 Be6 16. d4 exd4 17. cxd4 cxd4 18. Ne2 d3 19. Bxd3 Ne5 20. Ned4 Nxd3 21. Qxd3 Rc8 22. Nxe6 fxe6 23. e5 dxe5 24. Qg6 e4 25. Ne5 Bc5 26. Qf7+ Kh7 27. Qg6+ Kg8 28. Bxh6 Re7 29. Rad1 Qe8 30. Bg5 Qxg6 31. Nxg6 Rec7 32. b4 Ba7 33. Rd6 Kh7 34. Ne5 Rc2 35. Bh4 Rc1 36. Kf1 Nd5 37. Bg5 e3 38. fxe3 Bxe3 39. Nf3 Nf4 40. Bxf4 Bxf4 41. Rdxe6 R8c6 42. Rxc6 Rxc6 43. h4 Bc1 44. g4 Bxa3 45. Re4 g6 46. Ke2 Rc4 47. Ng5+ Kg7 48. Re7+ Kf8 49. Re6 Rxg4 1/2-1/2
Anand v Topalov: Game 2
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. f3 h5 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. a4 Be7 11. Be2 Nb6 12. O-O d5 13. a5 d4 14. axb6 dxe3 15. Qxe3 Nd7 16. Na4 Rc8 17. Na5 Bg5 18. Qd3 Rb8 19. Rfd1 O-O 20. Kh1 Qf6 21. c4 h4 22. c5 Qh6 23. c6 bxc6 24. Nxc6 Nf6 25. f4 Bxf4 26. Nxb8 Rxb8 27. Nc5 Ng4 28. Rf1 Ne3 29. Qd6 Re8 30. Nxe6 Qg6 31. Rf2 h3 32. gxh3 fxe6 33. b7 Qxe4+ 34. Bf3 Qd4 35. b8=Q Rxb8 36. Qxb8+ Kh7 37. Qb7 Nd5 1-0
Topalov v Anand: Game 3
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. h3 Bb7 9. d3 d6 10. a3 Qd7 11. Nc3 Nd8 12. d4 exd4 13. Nxd4 Re8 14. Nf5 Ne6 15. Bd5 Nxd5 16. exd5 Nc5 17. Qg4 Bf6 18. Bg5 h5 19. Qf4 Be5 20. Qf3 f6 21. Bd2 Qf7 22. Rad1 Nd7 23. Bf4 Bxc3 24. Qxc3 Nb6 25. Qg3 Kh7 26. Rxe8 Rxe8 27. Bxd6 Nxd5 28. Bc5 Re5 29. Nh4 Kg8 30. Nf3 Re8 31. Nd4 Kh7 32. Qd3+ Qg6 33. Qxg6+ Kxg6 34. f3 Nf4 35. Kf2 Kf7 36. Rd2 Rd8 37. Bb4 Ne6 38. Nxe6 1/2-1/2
Anand v Topalov: Game 4
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. Be2 Nbd7 8. O-O b5 9. a4 b4 10. Nc6 Qc7 11. Nxb4 d5 12. Nxa6 Bxa6 13. exd5 Bd6 14. h3 exd5 15. Nxd5 Nxd5 16. Qxd5 Bb7 17. Qc4 Bc6 18. b4 Qb7 19. Rad1 Be7 20. b5 Bxg2 21. Rxd7 Kxd7 22. Qg4+ Ke8 23. Qxg2 Qxg2+ 24. Kxg2 Rxa4 25. b6 Ra5 26. Rd1 Bg5 27. b7 Ke7 28. Bb6 Re5 29. Bd8+ 1-0
Champions at Leon:
1 1988 Javier Campos Moreno Chile
2 1989 Josef Pinter Hungary
3 1990 Julio Granda Peru
4 1991 Eugeny Vladimirov Russia
5 1992 Boris Gulko USA
6 1993 Leonid Yudasin Israel
7 1994 Alexander Beljavsky Ukraine
8 1995 Alexei Shirov Latvia
9 1996 Viswanathan Anand India
10 1997 Vesselin Topalov Bulgaria
11 1998 Gary Kasparov Russia
12 1999 Viswanathan Anand India
13 2000 Viswanathan Anand India
14 2001 Viswanathan Anand India
15 2002 Vladimir Kramnik Russia
16 2003 Ruslam Ponomariov Ukraine
17 2004 Alexei Shirov Latvia
18 2005 Viswanathan Anand India
19 2006 Viswanathan Anand India
20 2007 Viswanathan Anand India
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