Nice (France): Viswanathan Anand lost yet another game, this time a rapid to Boris Gelfand, as his chances of winning the 17th Melody Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess ended totally.

Anand, who was more or less out of the race after nine rounds, won the blindfold game but lost the rapid to Gelfand. Anand now has 11 points and is 3.5 points behind Levon Aronian, who can afford to lose both games in the 11th and final round and still win the title.

In Round 10, Aronian drew both the blindfold and rapid games against Vladimir Kramnik to keep a 2.5-point lead over his closest pursuers with only two games to go.

On the eve of the final round four, players share the second place in the overall standings: Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko and Topalov. Anand has 10 points and lying tied sixth with Ivanchuk and Morozevich.

The blindfold game between Gelfand and Anand was another example of the extraordinary depth of preparation on the highest level. As he revealed after the game, Anand had prepared the amazing bishop manoeuvre to a1 on move 20 for last year's Amber tournament. Funnily, he came to the right assessment of the position thanks to a mouse slip. When he looked at the position after 21.e5 he touched his mouse by mistake and inadvertently pushed his c-pawn to c5. And before he could correct his mistake the engine he was running indicated that this move was bull's eye!

The machine's verdict was correct, as Gelfand had to discover in the remainder of the game.

Gelfand had his revenge in the rapid game. Anand's 16. Na2 was a blunder and after Black's reply 16... Ne4 he was in trouble. Within a couple of moves Gelfand won a pawn and the rest was, to simplify matters, plain sailing.

Results of rd 10: Blindfold: Ivanchuk lost to Mamedyarov; Van Wely drew with Topalov; Gelfand lost to Anand; Karjakin drew with Morozevich; Aronian drew with Kramnik; Carlsen drew with Leko.

Rapid: Mamedyarov drew with Ivanchuk; Topalov beat Van Wely; Anand lost to Gelfand; Morozevich beat Karjakin; Kramnik drew with Aronian; Leko drew with Carlsen.

Standings after rd 10: 1. Aronian (13.5) 2. Kramnik, Topalov, Leko, Carlsen (11) 6. Anand, Ivanchuk and Morozevich (10) 9. Karjakin (8.5) 10. Gelfand, Mamedyarov and Van Wely (8).

Source : IANS