Bilbao (Spain): It could not have got worse for World Champion Vishwanathan Anand as after playing out eight draws, he crashed to his first defeat at the hands of Norweigian Magnus Carslen in the ninth and penultimate round of Fifth Final Chess Masters here.

Anand now with eight points from nine games finds himself at the fifth pot in the six player double round-robin tournament.

In another match, Italian Fabiano Caruana beat Armenian Levon Aronian whereas local boy Francesco Vallejo Pons went down to Sergey Karkajin of Russia.

With just one round to go, the championship will be decided between Carslen and Caruana as both of them are tied on 16 points. Aronian follows them in the third spot with 10 points while Karjakin is a point behind. Anand is on the fifth position while Vallejo Pons occupies the bottom of the table with five points.

By Indian Sports News Network