Anand's form in the rapid was found wanting once again as the Indian blundered a pawn for little compensation after earlier drawing the blindfold game.

The loss put Anand decisively out of reckoning for the top honours after Armenian Levon Aronian scored a resounding 2-0 victory over Alexander Morozevich of Russia.

Aided by the fine triumph, Aronian took his tally to 12.5 points in the overall standings and stretched his lead to a whopping 2.5 points over nearest rivals Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, Peter Leko of Hungary and Magnus Carlsen of Ukraine.

Ivanchuk and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria share the fifth spot jointly on 9.5 points each while Anand slipped to seventh spot on 9 points.