Monte Carlo: World Cup Champion Viswanathan Anand maintained his slender lead with a clinical 1.5-0.5 victory over Hungarian Grand Master Zoltan Almasi in the 9th round of the 12th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament here.

With two more rounds remaining in the 12-player double round robin tournament comprising one blindfold and one rapid game in each round, Anand (12 points) was half a point ahead of his nearest rivals Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Linares champion Peter Leko of Hungary in the combined standings.

Defending champion Alexander Morozevich slipped to fourth spot after settling for a 1-1 draw with fellow Russian Evgeny Bareev while Israeli Boris Gelfand was relegated to fifth position when he lost to Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia by 0.5-1.5 margin.

Anand lost his top position in the Rapid standings and was overtaken by co-leader Bareev. However, the Indian ace is slated to play the Russian in the next round and that could be his chance to regain the lead in this section.

Kramnik got back in lead in the blindfold with a fine victory over Gelfand who now shares the joint second place with Topalov in this section. Leko, Morozevich and Anand are in joint fourth position.

Anand played a fine technical endgame to beat Almasi in the Blindfold. The opening was a Berlin defence where Almasi was close to equalising on a few occasions but never quite there.

PTI