After drawing with Vladimir Kramnik in the opening blindfold game, World champion Viswanathan Anand defeated the Russian in their rapid match in the first round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament here.

Anand emerged as a joint leader in the rapid and combined standings after beating Kramnik. In the rapid section, the Indian is joined by Armenia’s Levon Aronian while in the combined standings it is a five-way tie between, Anand, Aronian, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk and Sergey Karjakin.

Results (Round 1): Blindfold: V Anand (Ind) drew Vladimir Kramnik; Veselin Topalov (Bul) bt Peter Leko (Hun); Shakhriyar Maedyarov (Aze) drew Alexander Morozevich (Rus); Boris Gelfand (Isr) lt to Sergey Karjakin (Ukr); Levon Aronian (Arm) drew Loek van Wely (Ned); Magnus Carlsen (Nor) lt to Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr).
Rapid: Kramnik lt to Anand; Morozevich drew Mamedyarov; Leko drew Topalov; Karjakin drew Gelfand; Van Wely lt to Aronian; Ivanchuk drew Carlsen.

Combined standings: Anand, Aronian, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Topalov (1.5 each) 1; Mamedyarov, Morozevich (1 each) 6; Carlsen, Gelfand, Kramnik, Leko, Van Wely (0.5 each) 8.