Defending champion Viswanathan Anand registered his first win of the 13th Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament in Monaco, France beating Veselin Topalov in a determinedly fought Rapid game in 67 moves.

Earlier Anand erred and lost his blindfold game, and so ended the day on an even keel. With nine more rounds, that is 18 games to go, there is a lot of time for Anand to catch up. In the third round, he is up against Paco Vallejo of Spain, and Anand should be able to get a good score against him and narrow the gap between him and the leaders.

Also Read Earlier Report: Topalov shocks Anand

Vladimir Kramnik led the field with 3.5 points out of four. After a 2-0 record on first day, Kramnik had one draw in blindfold and a win in rapid against Vassily Ivanchuk in second round.

Half a point behind Kramnik is Peter Leko, who like the first day had 1.5 points out of 2. He beat Alexander Mrozevich in blindfold and drew in rapid. Five other players have 2.5 points each, while Anand and Topalov have two each.

The Topalov-Anand blindfold game was a Sicilian Paulsen and Anand went down in 61 moves after the blunder. In the return game in rapid, it was another Sicilian, a Sveshnikov, which Anand won.

In a rather dramatic blindfold game, which showed how difficult it is to make without the pieces in front of you. Anand, playing with black in blindfold against Topalov, seemed to have a tough time recalling where he had moved his bishop. As a result his subsequent 'illegal' moves were corrected by the computer. Finally the Indian star had to make a pawn move, which resulted in its loss. He went on to lose the game.

Topalov and Anand felt that the game had drawish possibilities before Anand's mistake.

However Anand made amends quickly in the rapid. He played in a determined fashion and finally brought Topalov down in a long 67 move game to even out matters for the day. Anand now has half a point in blindfold and 1.5 in rapid for a total of 2 points in four games.

Vasily Ivanchuk managed a promising position in his blindfold game but then lost it again. He managed only a draw after 69 moves from a Sicilian Najdorf. He, however, lost his rapid game in just 27 moves, when he attempted to play the Berlin Wall against the man who had Kasparov in trouble with the same. That meant Ivanchuk has now only half a point from two rounds and four games.

At the end of two rounds, only Kramnik has a perfect record in rapid standings, while overall, no player has a perfect four out of four. Kramnik is the nearest with 3.5 out of four.

Every day in each round, the grandmasters play one Rapid game and one Blindfold game. The Blindfold games are played on a computer and the players see only an empty chess board. They make their moves with a mouse or the keyboard, which will then appear on the screens of both players. After they have confirmed their move, the players see the move disappear and the clock of the opponent starts running. The monitors in the playing room show the course of the game, which is visible to the arbiter and the audience, but not for the grandmasters.

Results:

Second round (Blindfold): Gelfand lost to Shirov; Ivanchuk drew with Kramnik; Leko beat Morozevich; Bareev lost to Svidler; Topalov beat Anand; Vallejo drew with Van Wely.

Second round (Rapid): Shirov beat Gelfand; Kramnik beat Ivanchuk; Morozevich drew with Leko; Svidler drew with Bareev; Anand beat Topalov; Van Wely beat Vallejo.

Combined Standings (after two rounds): 1. Kramnik 3.5; 2. Leko 3.0; 3. Svidler, Van Wely, Morozevich, Bareev,  and Shirov 2.5 each; 8. Topalov and Anand 2.0; 10. Ivanchuk and Vallejo Pons 0.5; 12. Gelfand Boris.

Pairings for third round (players with white for blindfold have black in rapid): Van Wely-Bareev; Anand-Vallejo; Svidler-Topalov; Morozevich-Shirov; Kramnik-Leko; Ivanchuk-Gelfand.