Aronian upsets Anand

Armenia’s Levon Aronian scored an upset victory over World champion Viswanathan Anand, after cashing on the gaffe made by India’s top ranked player on the 30th move in the second round of the Morelia-Linares chess tournament being played at Morelia in Mexico on Saturday.

After first round convincing victory over Alexei Shirov, Anand knocked down himself to an appalling blunder on move 30 in his game against Levon Aronian, who bounced back after facing first round defeat.

Playing with white pieces, Anand made out a blunder with his knight-move on the 30th turn in Ruy Lopez game, and lost the battle after 34 moves after facing checkmate. Aronian chose his favourite Marshall's attack over the reigning World champion.

In the other crucial battle of the day, Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Peter Leko. Leko similarly lost the plot around move 38 against Ivanchuk and gave up full point.

Azebiazan’s Teimour Radjabov had to settle for a draw after a promising start against Veselin Topalov, while Spaniard Shirov and Carlson also split points.

RESULTS (Second Round):

Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 1) lost to Levon Aronian (Arm, 1); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr. 1.5) bt Peter Leko (Hun, 1).

Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 0.5) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 1.5); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 0.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 1).