Anand Loses In The Bundesliga

World champion Vishy Anand suffered a shock loss in the German chess league today, while playing on top board for six-time champions Baden-Baden.

Anand lost with the black pieces to the Russian-born GM Sergei Tiviakov, who now plays for his adopted Netherlands.

39 year-old Tiviakov is currently ranked #73 in the world with a rating of 2673 Elo.  Vishy Anand's form over the last year has been very poor by his own high standards, seeing him fall to #4 in the world rankings and well below 2800 Elo on the live rating list.

With less than a month before Anand defends his title against Boris Gelfand in Moscow, the champion desperately needs to find some good form to ensure victory in a match where on paper at least, he is a strong favourite.

Baden-Baden also suffered a surprising loss on board 2, where Paco Vallejo Pons lost to Peter Acs. However the match with SC Eppingen ended drawn 4-4 thanks to wins from German GMs Arkadij Naiditsch and Phillip Schlosser.

Werder Bremen kept their league title hopes alive with a 6½-1½ thrashing of SK König Tegel.  Full results and games here.

The final round of matches takes starts tomorrow (Sunday) at 10:00 (08:00 UTC).  Follow the games live at the official website.