LEON: Vishwanathan Anand outplayed Bulgarian Grandmaster Veselin Topalov in the final to win the Magistral Ciudad de Leon Chess Tournament for a record seventh time and also achieve a hat-trick of title victories here.

Anand, who had emerged champion here in 2005 and 2006, won the four game rapid tie with a 3-1 score. Anand had beaten Topalov convincingly in the final here last year and and this time his victory was perhaps even more convincing.

The Indian ace scored victories with the white pieces in the second and the fourth games while drawing the first and third with black pieces. The rapid time control of 20 minutes per game, with an increment of 10 seconds per move, was clearly to Anand's liking and he remained unbeaten throughout the event.

Topalov was in an aggressive mood at the start. Anand chose a closed variation against the Spanish Opening and the Bulgarian launched a blistering attack on the king side after opening the centre. Anand kept his cool and defended with great tactical skills to force an exchange of queens.

This put the brakes on white's attack and took the game into a balanced endgame. More exchanges followed, and soon neither side had any chance to win because of reduced material on the board. The players agreed to split the point after 49 moves in a dead drawn position.