Carlsen does it again!

Magnus Carlsen beats Veselin Topalov with the black pieces to secure first place in the 2010 Pearl Spring tournament with a round to go.
Anand and Bacrot are still equal second.

Carlsen managed to liberate his position and achieved comfortable equality. Indeed it was the Norwegian who was pressing when Topalov overlooked a tactical shot that left Black with a winning position.

Gashimov played a very cautious sideline against the Berlin. His nominal advantage involved use of the d4-square, but this was hardly enough to worry Black.

The round eight summary:

Etienne BacrotFRA27160.5-0.5Wang YueCHN2732Petroff Defence27
Vugar GashimovAZE27190.5-0.5Viswanathan AnandIND2800Spanish Berlin42
Veselin TopalovBUL28030-1Magnus CarlsenNOR2826Catalan/Bogo-indian33

Etienne Bacrot and Wang Yue played out a very solid game. White had however managed to win a pawn, but then took a repetition due to his poor structure which was about to come under attack.

Here are the standings after the ninth round:

StandingNameCountryRatingPoints
1Magnus CarlsenNOR28266.5
2=Viswanathan AnandIND28005
2=Etienne BacrotFRA27165
4Vugar GashimovAZE27194
5Veselin TopalovBUL28033.5
6Wang YueCHN27323

With one-and-a-half points ahead of his rivals Magnus Carlsen has already won the event.

Magnus Carlsen: back into good form (chessanytime)

Here is a summary of the previous rounds:

Round 1:

Viswanathan AnandIND28000.5-0.5Wang YueCHN2732Slav/Grünfeld
Magnus CarlsenNOR28261-0Etienne BacrotFRA2716Scotch Opening
Veselin TopalovBUL28030.5-0.5Vugar GashimovAZE2719Slav Defence

Round 2:

Wang YueCHN27320.5-0.5Vugar GashimovAZE2719Nimzoindian Defence
Etienne BacrotFRA27160.5-0.5Veselin TopalovBUL2803Nimzoindian Defence
Viswanathan AnandIND28000.5-0.5Magnus CarlsenNOR2826Spanish Breyer

Round 3:

Magnus CarlsenNOR28261-0Wang YueCHN2732Petroff Defence
Veselin TopalovBUL28030-1Viswanathan AnandIND2800Queen's Gambit Declined Lasker
Vugar GashimovAZE27190-1Etienne BacrotFRA2716English Opening

Round 4:

Vugar GashimovAZE27190.5-0.5Magnus CarlsenNOR2826Spanish Breyer
Etienne BacrotFRA27161-0Viswanathan AnandIND2800Slav Defence
Veselin TopalovBUL28030.5-0.5Wang YueCHN2732Slav Defence

Round 5:

Viswanathan AnandIND28000.5-0.5Vugar GashimovAZE2719Slav/Grünfeld Defence25
Magnus CarlsenNOR28261-0Veselin TopalovBUL2803Spanish d332
Wang YueCHN27320-1Etienne BacrotFRA2716Queen's Indian Defence42

Round 6:

Wang YueCHN27320-1Viswanathan AnandIND2800Catalan/Bogoljubov51
Etienne BacrotFRA27160.5-0.5Magnus CarlsenNOR2826Queen's Indian Defence48
Vugar GashimovAZE27190.5-0.5Veselin TopalovBUL2803Caro-Kann Panov43

Round 7:

Vugar GashimovAZE27190.5-0.5Wang YueCHN2732Petroff Defence67
Veselin TopalovBUL28031-0Etienne BacrotFRA2716Queen's Indian Defence37
Magnus CarlsenNOR28260.5-0.5Viswanathan AnandIND2800Spanish Berlin68

Round 8:

Etienne BacrotFRA27160.5-0.5Vugar GashimovAZE2719Slav Exchange14
Viswanathan AnandIND28000.5-0.5Veselin TopalovBUL2803Catalan/Bogo-indian31
Wang YueCHN27320.5-0.5Magnus CarlsenNOR2826Catalan/Bogo-indian28

For those who like to follow the games, in Europe it means an early morning and in America a very short night!

Live games can be watched everyday (except today the 25th which is a rest day!) from 3pm local time Live Games

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Moscow 10.30am

Paris, Madrid 08.30am

London 07.30am

New York 02.30am

Los Angeles 23.30pm

For more information go to the Official site

where there is an option for English!

However for results and statistics I prefer Results


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