Corus Chess champion Viswanathan Anand beat local favourite Veselin Topalov in a TV blitz match in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Anand, who is expected to move up to second place in the new world rankings, won the two-game match 1.5-0.5 to avenge the defeat he suffered at the hands of Topalov in Corus Chess championship at Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands, last month.

Anand won the first game with black pieces and then drew the second with white to score over the Bulgarian.

Both games were in the Sicilian, the first being a Sicilian Paulsen which lasted 42 moves. The second was a Sicilian-Sveshnikov which lasted 31 moves before Topalov realised he did not have a chance to win and took a draw.

The Games were played on a format of 10 minute per player with no increments for each move. The Indian now has 2766 rating points, while Topalov is more than 30 ELO points behind at 2735.

This was the first time that a TV Blitz match was held in Bulgaria. In the past Anand has played such games in Germany.