Hyderabad: After a shock defeat to compatriot K Sasikiran in the previous round, defending champion Viswanathan Anand bounced back into reckoning outwitting Rustamm Ksimdzhanov of Uzbekistan in the third round of the World Cup chess tournament on Saturday.

In the women's section, GM Koneru Humpy's dream run continued as she registered her third victory on the trot. She defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia to lead Group ‘C’ after three matches.

In a tactical game, Anand, who drew his opening match, registered his first victory in the tournament. The highest-rated Indian with above 2700 ELO points dominated the board with the white pieces and suffocated his opponent's major pieces in the middle game.

With Anand's advanced d7 pawn threatening the rival queen, the Russian was left with no choice but to lose material and finally the game in 31 moves.

The World number three Anand has 1.5 points from three matches and is back in contention for the knock-out phase as he faces not very tough opponents in the next two rounds.

Playing white, Humpy maintained her supremacy in the game against the Russian right through before winning in 42 moves. Humpy is now assured of a quarter-final berth in this second edition of the tournament.

Surya Shekar Ganguly drew with Jann Ehlvest of Estonia while Sasikiran also drew with Hichem Hamdouch of Mauritius. The talented GM P Harikrishna bowed out of the tournament losing to the experienced Nigel Short of England. This was Harikrishna's third loss in a row.

PTI