Legendary Viswanathan Anand stepped it up in grand style to win the inaugural Tata Steel Chess India Blitz Tournament beating overnight leader Hikaru Nakamura in the play-off here yesterday. Placed fourth after the first leg on Tuesday, Anand, 48, had a dream run on the final day to secure six wins and three draws in nine rounds to draw level with the world No 3 American Nakamura to force a play-off.

In the two-round play-off, which was faster than blitz in a reduced time format of a three-minute game, Anand won with white pieces, before drawing with black to seal the issue 1.5-0.5. "I wanted to show the audience what is that I do in some other parts of the world all the time and it was nice to be able to do it here," Anand, who played in Kolkata for the first time after the third Goodricke Open in 1992, said.