The Associated Press reports that Putin's Russia is losing even at chess:

India's Vishwanathan Anand was crowned world champion of chess Saturday as he won the tournament in Mexico City which brought together eight of the game's best players. Known as the "Tiger from Madras, Anand, 37, replaced Vladimir Kramnik of Russia as champion, winning the tournament on points after tying a match with Hungarian Peter Leko on the 14th day of the contest, which he dominated from the start. "I enjoy this new feeling of being world champion," he told AFP. "I had a couple of difficult games, nothing too worrying for this kind of tournament," said Anand, who was ranked world number one going into the tournament. "I am just very happy with my game, we had a good team, I felt very well, my second (coach) helped me (with) a lot of interesting ideas, everything clicked."

The Israeli Boris Gelfand was meanwhile fighting it out to win second place over Kramnik, who saw the championship slip from his grasp on Friday after a tied match. Gelfand, 39, was looking to clinch second place through his Saturday match with Alexander Morozevich of Russia. Eight of the world's top chess brains met in Mexico for the competition. Prominent players such as the world number two, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, did not make it through the championship's complex qualification process.