Three winners in the first Grand Prix in London: Topalov, Gelfand and Mamedyarov!
Before the last round the Azeri player was leading with half a point ahead of Topalov, Grischuk and Gelfand but the draw in the last round by Mamedyarov gave a chance to the others to catch him at the top. Veselin Topalov managed to win with black against Anish Giri and Boris Gelfand won with the white pieces against Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Alexander Grischuk faltered at the end and could only draw against Nakamura.
In the 11th round all the eyes were on the leader of the tournament Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Obviously, the Azeri played for the draw to secure at least a tie for first place with a peaceful variation of the Nimzo Indian. Step by step, both players exchanged the pieces and the knight’s endgame was equal from the very beginning.
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Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took the lead yesterday for the first time and he keeps on leading after the tenth round as five out of sixth games were drawn. In the tenth round the rating number one in the tournament Hikaru Nakamura managed to win against Anish Giri after four defeats in a row! The last tweet of the American player spoke for itself: “While I do my absolute best to commit harakiri, (chess) at least her calming presence from afar puts it all in perspective. » So far, Hikaru was losing 26 rating points and was falling down to the 11th place in the World ranking but improved his situation today. One round to go Topalov, Gelfand and Grischuk share the 2nd place with “666” points half a point behind of Mamedyarov: The last round starts at 12 p.m.
Wang Hao – Mamedyarov:
Mamedyarov appeared very relaxed when he arrived at Simpson`s with his manager. Shakhriyar decided to play the Caro Kann defence – his opening of choice for this tournament. Wang Hao prepared a surprise for his opponent 5.Nc5 trying to defuse any preparation. “Shak” paused for thought, and then replied 5…e5!? which caught Wang Hao unprepared, as he had not expected Mamedyarov to know this line deeply. The forced line that followed saw a quick exchange of queens which led to the endgame with a slightly better pawn structure for white. “Hao”-ever it was not enough and a draw was the result.
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Macauley produces once more some short interviews from round 9.
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Players enjoyed the last free day yesterday. Some of them (Topalov, Dominguez, Giri, Leko and Wang Hao) visited the Saatchi Gallery and took some photo with Fred Lucas and Anastasia Karlovich:
http://london2012.fide.com/images/stories/gallery/Saatchi%20by%20Fred%20Lucas/index.html
http://london2012.fide.com/images/stories/gallery/Saatchi%20by%20Nastya%20Karlovich/index.html
Boris Gelfand is still leading with 5,5/8, just ahead Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with 5/8. Today, we almost had a forfeit as Sasha Grischuk arrived just before the Zero tolerance kicked in. The Russian player decided to go for a rare and close Sicilian, to avoid the Sveshnikov of Boris. Right after the opening, Grischuk converted his development advantage into a clear pawn up. On move 23, Grischuk decided to go for a direct attack, sacrificing a piece on e6, giving a winning position. Boris blundered with 24…Kd7?? Allowing 25.Qg4. Boris lost the lead!
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Macauley produces once more some short interviews from round 8.
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