MONTE CARLO, May 2: Vishwanathan Anand, who had already won the tournament, could not find the necessary motivation and went down to Jeroen Piket 0.5-1.5 in the final round of the Sixth Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess at Metropole Palace Hotel, Monaco, here on Thursday. Vasily Ivanchuk blanked Loek Van Wely 2-0 to finish second.

Anand emulated a rare feat by becoming the first person to win the Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament simultaneously.

Anand played the Queen's Indian Defence against Piket. However, Piket having no chances of coming into the top bracket, went for Anand's throat by sacrificing a piece on the 13th move which resulted in murky complications. Anand played accurately to share the spoils.

Piket finished the tournament in style by handing out Anand his second loss in tournament. Anand went wrong in a drawish position to lose the game.

Final placings: Anand 15.5, Ivanchuk 14.5, Topalov 13.5, Karpov 13, Shirov, Nikolic 11.5, Ljubojevic 9.5, Piket, Van Wely 9, Lautier 8, Andersson 4.5.

Blindfold placings: Anand 8 (11), Ivanchuk 7.5, Topalov 7, Karpov, Nikolic 6.5, Kramnik, Shirov 5.5, Lautier, Piket 4.5, Ljubojevic 4, Andersson 3.5, Van Wely 3.

Rapid: Anand 7.5, Ivanchuk, Kramnik 7, Karpov, Topalov 6.5, Van Wely, Shirov 6, Ljubojevic 5.5, Nikolic 5, Piket 4.5, Lautier 3.5, Andersson 1.

Results

Blindfold: Piket drew with Anand, Van Wely lost to Ivanchuk, Lautier bt Kramnik, Shirov drew with Ljubojevic, Nikolic bt Karpov, Andersson bt Topalov.

Rapid: Anand lost to Piket, Ivanchuk bt Van Wely, Kramnik drew with Lautier, Ljubojevic bt Shirov, Karpov drew with Nikolic, Topalov bt Andersson.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.