Mr.Consistent of Indian Sports and World chess champion, Vishwanathan Anand retained the linares chess tournament by once again emerging victorious in this year's edition took place in Spain.
Anand ended this category-21 tournament with 8.5 points and finished a half point clear of nearest rival Magnus Carlsen of Norway who played a draw with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in his last game. Levon Aronian of Armenia signed peace with Peter Leko of Hungary while Alexei Shirov of Spain could not break the ice and reached the same result against Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk making it an all-draws affair in the final round.
In the final round Anand, white, had little troubles against Topalov as the Indian knew that his half point cushion was going to be tough for Carlsen to jump over. Anand owed his success to his consistency in the tournament, "I had a turbulent first half but I caught up by the fifth round with a score similar to last year, after that I had two draws before flying over (to Spain from Mexico). I feel in Linares people (other players) were tired. I think I was the most stable person here while others were going through roller coasters," the champion said after winning the tournament. Speaking about how he would compare his performance in this unique event played over two continents Anand said," I scored a half point more at Morelia but its basically the same tournament, I think at Morelia I played interesting games."
