PTI

Mexico City, Sep 27: 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.

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.

Morozevich, who had created a major flutter earlier by, beating Kramnik, is now in company of Svidler at the bottom of the table on 4.5 points.

The English attack has been Anand's pet for a long time already and it was another day when he was not disappointed in one of his favourable openings. While other boards were locked in seemingly dry positions, Anand's game invoked a lot of interest as he went for the kill.

Morozevich made a middle game error that left a complicated battle in Anand's favour. It was time for some manoeuvring and Anand displayed his deep understanding once again to clean up black's queen side.

Morozevich got some optical counter-play on the other wing when his pawns started a march but it was a perfect finale that saw Anand finishing the game with a brilliant tactical stroke. It was all over for Morozevich on the 56th move.

Kramnik, meanwhile, made his peaceful intentions clear by opting for the Petroff defence against Grischuk who did not mind adding to his tally either. Routine theory led to balanced position and the players shook hands after just 13 moves.

Gelfand-Svidler lasted a bit longer with similar details. Svidler employed the Grunfeld defense as black and was never in troubles after the queens got traded. The game lasted 22 moves. Leko tried harder against Aronian in the Queen's Indian defence but the latter was quite up to the task in finding his defence.

Reaching a slightly worse rook and pawns endgame, Aronian held on to his own to sign peace after 56 moves.