BILBAO (Spain): Languishing at the bottom the table, world champion Viswanathan Anand will look for that elusive win when he meets tournament leader Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the ninth and penultimate round of Bilbao Grand Slam finals here.
With a mediocre performance that has resulted in six draws and a couple of losses so far, Anand is currently at the bottom of the table on just six points in the soccer-like scoring system that gives three points for a win and one for a draw.
Topalov, on the other hand, leads the tables on 13 points, a full point clear of Levon Aronian of Armenia and two points ahead of Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, both of whom have a point apiece in the six-player double round robin event.
Anand is joint fifth alongside Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and this is not a good sign ahead of the world championship match he is slated to play against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia next month.
According to experts, the Indian ace is perhaps reserving his best for the match against Kramnik but the way he lost the eighth round game against Aronian after being in a better position in the endgame will be a cause of concern.
Meanwhile, thanks to his double victory over Magnus Carlsen in the tournament, Topalov is at the helm and is the favourite to win the title. The Bulgarian has black pieces against Anand in the return game.
Carlsen, with an amazing energy level is fighting it out in every game. In the previous round that he lost to Topalov, the Norwegian was trying to win after attaining equality and only this led to the disaster. In the next round, Carlsen will meet Radjabov and after that he will play Anand in the final round game.
Vassily Ivanchuk scored back-to-back victories to come within striking distance of the leader. And the Ukrainian has it in him to deliver the best in the final stages of the tournament. The match against Aronian will be crucial in the penultimate round when Ivanchuk will play with white pieces.
The event carries an unprecedented prize pool of 4,00000 Euros with 1,50,000 Euros reserved for the winner.
Pairings of Round 9: Anand (Ind, 6) vs Veselin Topalov (Bul, 13); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 11) vs Levon Aronian (Arm, 12); Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 6) vs Magnus Calsen (Nor, 11).
