Anand crowned undisputed World Champion, regains title after 7 years

Oct 01: Person to remain undefeated in the entire meet

World number one India’s Viswanathan Anand regained the title of World Championship after a gap of almost 7 years, and also become the undisputed title holder of the meet after fighting it out with World’s top eight players in the championship, drawing his 14 th and final round game in fast time against Hungarian Peter Leko at the Mexico City on Sunday.

The 37-year old became the first undisputed World champion since 1993, after Garry Kasparov parted ways with FIDE in that year. The Indian ace just needed a draw to claim the title, and an unsurpassable tally of nine points with the title worth $3,90,000, as the Hungarian Leko could not resisted much against him as the game ended in a draw in mere 20 moves.

India’s first grandmaster will also hold his number one ranking in ELO ratings and expected to cross 2800 points, which is due to be released today. Anand scored four victories and drew ten games for his title victory and has been the consistent throughout the championship.

"Being the undisputed world champion is a relief. The feud was resolved in the chess fraternity since last year and we instituted a unified chess title, I am the absolute world champion," Anand said after his scoring a superb 9/14 in the event.

Anand, who was the runner-up in San Luis in 2005, said the feeling was yet to sink in.

"I wanted to win the title here as I finished close to it in the last two attempts. This was my third attempt since 2000. I tried to win at San Luis and now this is third. Still it is a long time whichever way you look at it," he said.

However, he refused to draw any comparison with his previous world title win in Tehran in 2000.

"Every player and every format is a different challenge so I can't compare Tehran from Mexico. It will be like which hand I prefer more. But I am happy to go through this field undefeated," he said, referring to his four victories and 10 draws.

On the other hand, it turned out to be a tie for the second spot between Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Israeli Boris Gelfand after Kramnik scored a thumping victory over Levon Aronian of Armenia while Gelfand settled for draw against Alexander Morozevich to remain at 8 equivalent points after the final round.

It’s been a glorious year for Indian sports thus far, India beat Syria to win the Nehru Cup on August 29, India whipped South Korea 7-2 to turn out to be Asian champions on September 9 and Dhoni's men in blue lift the inaugural Twenty20 World championship on September 24.

"Being a favourite puts pressure on you. That showed in the initial rounds. "The field was very strong and I always expected a tough campaign," said the champion.

The journey towards the title was never easy at the start despite he pulled off a comfortable margin of victory. Anand is expected to return back home in the mid of October and also must be waiting for the grand reception from his countrymen, and fellow players of the chess fraternity, in the same manner as they welcomed the victorious T20 world champion winning team.

Results (Final round): Viswanathan Anand ( Ind, 9) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 7),Viadimir Kramnik (Rus, 8) beat Levon Aronian (Arm, 6), Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 6) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 8) and Peter Svidler (Rus, 6.5) beat Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 5.5).

Final Positions: 1 st Anand 9 pts, 2 nd and 3 rd Kramnik and Gelfand with 8 pts. each, 4 th . Leko 7 pts, 5 th Svidler 6.5 pts, 6 th and 7 th Morozevich and Aronian with 6 pts each and 8 th Grischuk 5.5 pts.