Anand loses last round, falls to fourth

MOSCOW - Viswanathan Anand went down in a stunning loss to Lev Aronian and slipped to tied fourth as the final round saw Vladimir Kramnik secure first place with his draw against Vassily Ivanchuk in the Tal Memorial chess tournament here.

Ivanchuk and Kramnik played a 29-move draw that was full of interest. Perhaps Ivanchuk even missed better chances to take first place for himself but Kramnik defended well. So Kramnik took first place with six points out of nine.

Anand came hoping for a win over Aronian for a chance to catch Kramnik in first place. Instead, he seemed to be lost very early. Anand put up little resistance for the rest of the game and lost in 27 moves.

The game was in the Slav Defence in which Black scored a scorching 27-move victory over his higher-rated opponent as the result of an unfortunate blunder late in the game.

Ruslan Ponomariov beat Alexander Morozevich, Magnus Carlsen with black beat Peter Leko and Boris Gelfand drew with Peter Svidler.

Final points: 1. Kramnik 6 points; 2-3. Ivanchuk and Carlsen 5.5 points; 4-5. Aronian and Anand 5 points; 6. Gelfand 4 points; 7. Ponomariov 4 points; 8. Svidler 3.5 points; 9-10. Leko and Morozevich 3 points.