World champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria beat Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain 2.5-1.5 to enter the final of the Magistral Ciudad de Leon chess tournament in Leon, where he will take on Indian ace Viswanathan Anand.
Topalov's victory came much faster than Anand's in the semi-finals as the Bulgarian quickly won two games and then drew the third to ensure his berth in the finals of the traditional event.
Pons did well to win the fourth game but it turned out enough only to give the score card a look of closely-fought battle then it actually was.
Defending champion Anand had to work very hard to beat Lazaro Bruzon of Cuba in the first semi-final that was stretched till the tie-break blitz games on Friday.
The Anand-Topalov final to be played later on Sunday will be quite important for the world number two Indian and he will be under pressure after his recent lean patch.
Having struggled in the second half of Mtel Masters last month, followed by the Olympiad where Anand lost more than 19 Elo rating points, this is a good opportunity for him to set things right.
Topalov was at ease right from the start against Pons who played black in the first of the four-game match.
The Spaniard took refuge in the Caro Kann defense but was subjected to a bitter endgame lesson from a position he thought was defendable.
Earlier in the middle game, Pons had gone on exchanging pieces to find himself in the minor piece endgame that saw some exemplary technical display by Topalov. The game lasted 51 moves.
The next game was decisively in Topalov's favour after Pons failed to spot a relatively easy tactic in the middle game arising out of a Sicilian defense.
Going for an innocuous opening variation, Pons had his chances in the middle game but an oversight cost him the queen.
Topalov drew the third game to seal the match and was apparently in bad shape for the inconsequential final game that he lost in just 20 moves.
Pons played energetically in the Sicilian Paulsen with white and won a piece early in the queen less middle game to register his first victory in the match.
