Anand Beats Topalov As Indian Legend Hunts 10th Leon Masters Title
15th World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand defeated one of his great rivals GM Veselin Topalov 2.5-1.5 on Friday to reach the Final of the 2024 Leon Masters. He'll face the winner of Saturday's Semifinal between GM Arjun Erigaisi and local hero GM Jaime Santos in Sunday's Final as he aims to make it 10 titles in the Spanish city.
The second Semifinal starts Saturday, June 29, at 10:30 a.m. ET / 16:30 CEST / 8 p.m. IST.
This event is the 37th edition of the Leon Masters, a tournament that has been won by World Champions Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Magnus Carlsen. The player who has most made Leon his home, however, is Anand, who has played the event 15 times and won on no less than nine occasions.
Leon Masters Winners
| # | Year | FED | Player | # | Year | FED | Player |
| 1 | 1988 | Javier Campos | 19 | 2006 | Viswanathan Anand | ||
| 2 | 1989 | Jozsef Pinter | 20 | 2007 | Viswanathan Anand | ||
| 3 | 1990 | Julio Granda | 21 | 2008 | Vasyl Ivanchuk | ||
| 4 | 1991 | Yevgeniy Vladimirov | 22 | 2009 | Magnus Carlsen | ||
| 5 | 1992 | Boris Gulko | 23 | 2010 | Boris Gelfand | ||
| 6 | 1993 | Leonid Yudasin | 24 | 2011 | Viswanathan Anand | ||
| 7 | 1994 | Alexander Beliavsky | 25 | 2012 | Francisco Vallejo | ||
| 8 | 1995 | Alexei Shirov | 26 | 2013 | Anish Giri | ||
| 9 | 1996 | Viswanathan Anand | 27 | 2014 | Wei Yi | ||
| 10 | 1997 | Veselin Topalov | 28 | 2015 | Wei Yi | ||
| 11 | 1998 | Garry Kasparov | 29 | 2016 | Viswanathan Anand | ||
| 12 | 1999 | Viswanathan Anand | 30 | 2017 | Wesley So | ||
| 13 | 2000 | Viswanathan Anand | 31 | 2018 | Wesley So | ||
| 14 | 2001 | Viswanathan Anand | 32 | 2019 | Parham Maghsoodloo | ||
| 15 | 2002 | Vladimir Kramnik | 33 | 2020 (online) | Leinier Dominguez | ||
| 16 | 2003 | Ruslan Ponomariov | 34 | 2021 (online) | Boris Gelfand | ||
| 17 | 2004 | Alexei Shirov | 35 | 2022 | Boris Gelfand | ||
| 18 | 2005 | Viswanathan Anand | 36 | 2023 | Jaime Santos |
54-year-old Anand said it would be "magnificent" to round off his career in Leon with a 10th win, while in the Semifinal he was paired to meet the player he won a World Championship match against in Sofia in 2010, 49-year-old Topalov.
The Bulgarian also has happy memories of Leon, and not just winning the title in 1997. He said after the drawing of lots that he made his debut in elite chess 31 years ago in Leon, when he played in the 1993 tournament and got to face former World Champion Anatoly Karpov—in fact, they shared third place on 5.5/9, with GM Leonid Yudasin scoring 7/9.
The other Semifinal is between two young players, 27-year-old local star and defending champion, Santos, and 20-year-old Arjun, who has stormed up to world number-four by playing everywhere, both accepting invitations and playing relatively minor opens.
Anand 2.5-1.5 Topalov
The format is four rapid games where each player has 20 minutes for all moves, plus a 10-second increment each move. Only if the score is tied 2-2 will a playoff take place with 3+2 blitz games.
The match opened with two wild draws, with Anand later commenting on the live broadcast: "The truth is it was very difficult. I didn’t start the match very well, but I survived!"
I didn't start the match very well, but I survived!
—Viswanathan Anand
The first clash was a very sharp Vienna Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3) where Topalov built up a dominant position where his bishop on c6 completely dominated Anand's rooks on a7 and e7. After 28...Re6? White was winning, but not after the Bulgarian's 29.Bd7?. He was half-expecting his opponent to resign, but it turned out Black was suddenly completely OK!
A wild first game in Leon sees Topalov and Anand make a draw — there are up to three 20-minute games to go! https://t.co/J2ejYcVeGW pic.twitter.com/eSBna0NRP0
— chess24 (@chess24com) June 28, 2024
The second game began with a slow maneuvering Ruy Lopez but suddenly burst into life when Topalov got to sacrifice an exchange. Soon afterward he got a chance to launch a decisive attack on Anand's king but missed one crucial trick.
Topalov quipped that he'd made a mouse-slip when he later blundered a pawn.
Topalov blunders a pawn and suddenly Vishy has all the winning chances! pic.twitter.com/6TE1T2751y
— chess24 (@chess24com) June 28, 2024
Topalov noted, "In sport you have to take your chances," and it was Anand who seized his chance in game three.
An innocuous-looking middlegame position suddenly saw Anand able to launch a kingside attack, and although 37...Nf4+?! isn't one of the computer-approved kills it did ultimately prove enough to give Anand victory.
That's our Game of the Day, which GM Dejan Bojkov analyzes below:
The final game was, therefore, a must-win for Topalov, who played the French Defense, but Anand soon traded into an endgame where only he could be better and went on to make a draw from a position of strength.
Anand-Arjun could be a fascinating clash of the Indian generations in the Final on Sunday, but first Santos will try to stop Arjun in Saturday's Semifinal.
How to watch?
You can watch the Spanish broadcast from the venue on the Chess.com ES YouTube channel or the Chess24 ES Twitch channel. There's also an English/Hindi broadcast on the Chess24 India YouTube channel. The games can also be reviewed on our dedicated 2024 Leon Masters events page.
The live broadcast was hosted by IM David (El Divis) Martinez and GM Pepe Cuenca.
The 2024 Leon Masters is a four-player knockout taking place in Leon, Spain, from June 28-30, featuring GMs Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Arjun Erigaisi, and Jaime Santos. Each match consists of four 20+10 rapid games. If the scores are tied, the players compete in 3+2 blitz games.
Previous coverage:
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
