Viswanathan Anand crashed through Alexander Morozevich’s defence in the lone decisive match of the 11th round and only a miracle of sorts now can deny the Indian of his second World chess championship title.

While the rest of the 11th round games ended in draws, Anand went for the kill against Morozevich and achieved it in great style to take his tally to an extremely impressive 7.5 points out of a possible 11.

In the process, the Indian ace also extended his lead to a whopping 1.5 points over nearest rival Boris Gelfand of Israel.

Big threat

Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, perceived as the only big threat in Anand’s quest for the title at the start of the championship, gave up hopes of defending his title after his quick draw with compatriot Alexander Grischuk while a tiring Boris Gelfand also played it safe against Russian Peter Svidler.

The other game of the day was fought harder between Levon Aronian of Armenia and Peter Leko of Hungary but that too reached a deadlock. As things stand, Gelfand, on six points, is half point ahead of Kramnik, Aronian and Leko while Grischuk (5) is another half point behind for his sole sixth spot.

Results (round 11): Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 7.5) bt Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 4.5); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 6) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 4.5); Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 5) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 5.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 5.5) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 5.5).