World Cup champion Vishwanathan Anand stormed into the quarter-finals in the World Rapid Chess Championship with a hard-earned victory over former World champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia in the seventh and final round game of the league phase, which concluded on Sunday.

The Russian Grandmaster duo of Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk and Judit Polgar of Hungary joined Anand in the knock-out stage.

Svidler won the Group B league phase comprehensively, aggregating five points out of a possible seven.

Grischuk finished second in the group with 4.5 points while Polgar and Anand tied for third place with four points each.

In Group A World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, Braingames match winner Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Frenchman Etienne Bacrot are all tied for the top spot with four points each and just one more round to go.

Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Boris Gelfand of Israel are in contention for the last slot, with three points each.

Steely nerves and tremendous energy, well-complemented by power play and superior endgame skills, spelled success for Anand as he came back from an ouster threat to figure among the frontrunners now.

Anand's opponent in the next round will be decided only after the conclusion of the Group A games but the Indian stalwart must be quite relieved after finding his way finally following an absorbing session of mental boxing against Karpov in the final game.

It was a Queen's Indian where Anand, black, equalized quite comfortably in the queenless middle game but, apparently, was almost on the ropes in the ensuing rook and pawns endgame. However, as the dust subsided Anand promoted one of his pawns as a queen and never looked back.

Results

Group A:

Round 6: Vladimir Kramnik (4, Rus) drew Michael Adams (2, Eng); Boris Gelfand (3, Isr) lost to Ruslan Ponomariov (4, Ukr); Veselin Topalov (3, Bul) drew Evgeny Bareev (2.5, Rus); Zurab Azmaiparashvili (1.5, Geo) drew Etienne Bacrot (4, Fra) Round 5: Bacrot beat Bareev; Ponomariov drew Kramnik; Gelfand beat Topalov; Adams beat Azmaiparashvili.

Group B:

Round 7: Judit Polgar (4, Hun) drew Alexander Grischuk (4.5, Rus); Peter Svidler (5, Rus) drew Alexei Shirov (3.5, Esp); Anatoly Karpov (1.5, Rus) lost to Viswanathan Anand (4); Joel Lautier (2, Fra) lost to Peter Leko (3.5, Hun) Round 6: Grischuk drew Karpov; Anand drew Svidler; Shirov beat Lautier; Leko beat Polgar.

Final Standings Group B:

1.Svidler; 2. Grischuk; 3-4. Anand, Polgar, 5-6. Leko, Shirov; 7. Lautier; 8. Karpov.