World champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Peter Leko of Hungary in the rapid game of the fourth round of the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament here.

The loss proved quite costly for Anand as he lost his lead position in both rapid section and combined standings.
As things stand, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria share the lead with 5 points each in the combined standings and Anand is now sole fourth on 4 points.

In the rapid section, Aronian overtook Anand after beating Magnus Carlsen of Norway and is now sole first on 3 points.

Anand shares the joint second spot in this section on 2.5 points along with Topalov, Leko, and Ivanchuk.

It’s a four-way lead in the blindfold and Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia are at the helm on 2.5 points each. With 50 per cent score here, Anand is joint fifth on 2 points.

Things did not go as planned for Anand in the rapid game. Playing the black side of a Sicilian defense, Anand was under pressure when Leko went for an ultra sharp variation and won in just 28 moves.

Earlier, the blindfold game between the two featured a Caro Kann defense where Anand played white. Leko was apparently satisfied with his result from the opening that gave him a reasonable position and Anand decided to repeat moves to split the point.

Boris Gelfand of Israeli lost on time in the blindfold game against Loek Van Wely. It was the first time that any player lost his game this way and Gelfand complained of a problem in the software.

Results (Round 4):
Blindfold: Boris Gelfand (Isr) lt to Loek van Wely (Ned); Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) drew Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr); Levon Aronian (Arm) drew Magnus Carlsen (Nor); Vladimir Kramnik (Ukr) bt Alexander Morozevich (Rus); Viswanathan Anand (Ind) drew Peter Leko (Hun); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) lt to Veselin Topalov (Bul).

Rapid: Van Wely drew Gelfand; Ivanchuk bt Karjakin; Carlsen lt to Aronian; Morozevich drew Kramnik; Leko bt Anand; Topalov drew Mamedyarov.

Standings:
Blindfold: Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Kramnik, Topalov (2.5 each) 1; Morozevich, Anand, Aronian, Karjakin, Van Wely (2 each) 5; Mamedyarov, Leko (1.5 each) 10; Gelfand (0.5) 12. Rapid: Aronian (3) 1; Anand, Leko, Topalov, Ivanchuk (2.5 each) 2; Gelfand, Mamedyarov (2 each) 6; Van Wely, Kramnik, Carlsen, Karjakin (1.5 each) 8; Morozevich (1) 12.

Combined: Topalov, Aronian, Ivanchuk (5 each) 1; Anand (4.5) 4; Leko, Carlsen, Kramnik (4 each) 5; Van Wely, Mamedyarov, Karjakin (3.5 each) 8; Gelfand, Morozevich (3 each) 11.