MOSCOW, Nov 28: India’s Viswanathan Anand, holder of the FIDE world chess champion’s title, gained revenge Wednesday for his shock defeat by a rank outsider in the first round of the 2001-2 championship, beating Frenchman Olivier Touzane in under two hours.

With the score at one game each in the two-game series, the match goes to a rapid-play tie-breaker, and if that too is drawn to a blitz tie-breaker later in the day.

Touzane, ranked last of the 128 contestants meeting in the Kremlin’s Palace of Congresses for the knock-out competition, pulled off a major upset by defeating Anand, ranked first, with the black pieces on Tuesday.

Anand, who won the FIDE (World Chess Federation) title in Teheran last year, fought back to equalise by using the relatively obscure Volga gambit to outwit his opponent.

Touzane is one of eight candidates who qualified for the championship by taking part in an Internet competition run by FIDE.

The world’s top two players, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, are boycotting the championship and playing a separate head-to-head match beginning on Saturday.—AFP