A new leash of life!After the first rest day at the Grand Prix in London we had a real battle: three decisive games! They took Topalov and Mamedyarov into shared 2nd place alongside Grischuk and Leko – while Nakamura was dispatched to the bottom, “to feed the fish”…
All to be decided in the final roundAnna Muzychuk didn’t manage to beat Viktorija Cmilyte with White while Humpy Koneru got the better of Kubra Ozturk with Black. That means that going into the final round of the 6th stage of the Women’s Grand Prix in Ankara the battle for second place in the overall Grand Prix standings is balanced on a knife edge. Muzychuk and Koneru have 7.5 points, while Zhao Xue has half a point less.
Caruana reaches for the stars…Fabiano Caruana’s ambitions this year have been growing by the tournament, or even the game! After victories over Carlsen and Karjakin he almost overcame World Champion Viswanathan Anand in the 3rd round of the Grand Slam Final. The round’s other two encounters also finished in draws after a tense struggle: Carlsen was unable to squeeze out a win against Karjakin, while Aronian wriggled his way out of a rather dubious situation in his game against Vallejo.
Anna Muzychuk beats Humpy Koneru to take the leadWith three rounds to go a change of leadership has taken place in the 6th stage of the Women’s Grand Prix in Ankara: Anna Muzychuk beat Humpy Koneru with Black to take sole first place on 7/9. The Indian grandmaster is half a point behind while Zhao Xue is third on 6 points.
Dead calm in London…All six games in Round 5 of the London stage of the Grand Prix ended in draws, as the players prepared for the first rest day… Boris Gelfand has maintained his lead, while Alexander Grischuk and Peter Leko are still in pursuit.
Caruana off to a flyer: six out of six!Italian Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana is the sole leader of the Grand Slam Final. Spurred on by an unexpected win against Carlsen in Round 1, Fabiano managed to win again – this time against Karjakin with the black pieces. Anand and Aronian drew, while the ratings favourite from Norway has Caruana in his sights after beating Vallejo.
Aronian and Caruana off to a winning start...The 5th Grand Slam in Sao Paulo delighted fans with vivid games and decisive results. Aronian and Caruana won their opening battles: Levon – in a tactical skirmish with Karjakin, and Fabiano in a protracted struggle against Carlsen. The only draw was between Anand and Vallejo, and you couldn’t describe their game as peaceful either…
Breather before the final push?Incredible but true – all six games of the 8th round of the Women’s FIDE Grand Prix in Ankara… ended in draws. Three days ago all six of them finished decisively! Humpy Koneru has therefore maintained her lead, while Anna Muzychuk is still only half a point behind. Just three rounds remain until the end of the tournament.
Gelfand the surprise leaderBoris Gelfand is now the sole leader of the London Grand Prix! After two nondescript draws he’s won his second game – against Wang Hao – and is now half a point ahead of Peter Leko and Alexander Grischuk. The Russian finally opened his winning account, totally outplaying yesterday’s victor Mamedyarov.
London, Rd 3. It depends how you look at it…There are two ways of looking at a chess tournament: the professional one, in which games are evaluated by active players, and the amateur one – the evaluation of a simple spectator, even if a reasonably good one. Often those points of view overlap, but sometimes they totally contradict each other. A clear example of that was the 3rd round of the London Grand Prix.
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