Monte Carlo: Super Grand Master Vishwanathan Anand won the 12th Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament in style defeating Bulgarian Veselin Topalov 1.5-0.5 in the 11th and final round.

This was Anand's third title in this unique tournament that has one blindfold and one rapid game in each round. The Indian ace had earlier stamped his superiority here in 1997 when he won all the three titles at stake – Rapid, Blindfold and Combined, and in 1994.

Anand finished the tournament with a tally of 14.5points, a full point ahead of nearest rivals Peter Leko of Hungary and 2001 Champion Alexander Morozevich of Russia.

Though Anand did not finish first in the individual rapid and blindfold categories, his steady performance in both was enough to net him the champion's crown.

Braingames Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia won the blindfold title after he drew his last round game with Ljubomir Ljubojevich of Yugoslavia. Kramnik had a full point lead in this section and he achieved the just result in the last round. Anand tied for second along with Morozevich in Blindfold with a fluent victory over Topalov.

Russian Evgeny Bareev won the Rapid title after agreeing to a quick draw with World Championship finalist Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine. Like Kramnik, Bareev also scored 8 points out of a possible 11 and was half a point clear of Anand and Leko in this section.

PTI