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Chess champion Viswanathan Anand on Wednesday won his fifth world title, defeating Israeli rival Boris Gelfand here in a 12 rounds plus tie-breaker series. Wednesday’s victory was Anand’s fourth in a row. He had previously won the world title in 2000, 2007, 2008 and 2010, and has been the undisputed World Champion since 2007. In the tiebreak, Anand took the early lead against Gelfand in a rapid fire battle of nerves to decide the biggest prize in the sport. After drawing on Monday the final regular match in their 12-game Moscow series to leave the world championships level, the two grandmasters were forced into the chess equivalent of a football penalty shootout. Dubbed the " Battle of the Armageddon" in chess circles, Wednesday's match saw two of the finest players the world locking horns in up to 15 thrilling speed chess games to determine the world champion. Gelfand and Anand drew the first game of the tiebreak but the Indian then recorded a nail-biting victory while playing white in the second game amid huge tension at the host venue of the Tretyakov art gallery in Moscow . The Israeli was in all sorts of trouble at the start of game one despite playing first with the white pieces but pulled himself out of jail with a series of brilliant moves. Game two initially appeared to have a similar pattern, as Gelfand used all his defensive resources to repel a series of attacks by Anand But with the game apparently heading to a draw in the endgame, Gelfand ceded control of the board with a poorly judged move as massive pressure from his rapidly elapsing time allowance took its toll. After a series of rapid exchanges and the position hopeless, Gelfand resigned. A tense Anand expressed relief on retaining his World Chess crown. With the players knowing one mistake could cost the championships, the match was marked by the almost unbearable tension of past great clashes like the epic world title match between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov in 1984-85. Anand, dressed in his usual blue shirt, sat rooted to his chair as the more expressive Gelfand ran his hands through his hair and took long walks away from the board to think out his positions. Wednesday's series featured four short 25-minute speed chess games. This was the time Anand established his hold over Gelfand, and therefore, there was no need for the two players to take part in 10 more "blitz" 5-minute games or the sudden death single game "golden goal" decider in which black would get four minutes and white five.

India’s Viswanathan Anand wins fifth World Chess title