Three equal first in Moscow

Boris Gelfand beat the pre-round leader Shakhriyar Mamedyarov which enabled Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin to move up to equal first.
Today's other winner was Vladimir Kramnik against Alexei Shirov.

Round 9 (14th of November):

Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	1-0	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	36	English Opening	Early on White was able to press with h4-h5. Mamedyarov sought counterplay down the f-file but his corralled knight cost him a pawn and his attacking chances ran out.
Wang Hao	CHI	2727	0.5-0.5	Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760		English Opening	White won a queenside pawn, but at the cost of complications during which Karjakin snatched the exchange, but soon had to give it back. Wang Hao was then even a couple of pawns up, but allowed a desperate counter-attack which netted Black a fortunate draw.
Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	0.5-0.5	Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	34	Semi-Slav Defence	Black's thematic ...c5 led to solid equality.
Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	0.5-0.5	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	90	Leningrad Dutch	In a tense middlegame the American snatched a couple of queenside pawns and fended off Grischuk's attack. The Queen and bishop versus queen and knight ending was then favourable for Nakamura, but the technical problems proved to be too great and Grischuk scraped a draw.
Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	1-0	Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	59	Queen's Gambit Cambridge Springs	Black grabbed a pawn at the cost of giving White the bishop pair, then became ambitious by playing ...g5 winning a piece at the cost of an exposed king. Kramnik picked up some pawns and eventually won the endgame of four pawns versus bishop.

The final table is as follows:

Standing	Name	Country	Rating	World rank	Age	+	=	-	Points	Expected Score	Elo+/-
1=	Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	3	28	2	7	0	5.5	5.1	+4
1=	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	8	25	3	5	1	5.5	4.6	+9
1=	Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760	9	20	2	7	0	5.5	4.5	+10
4=	Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	6	27	1	8	0	5	4.7	+3
4=	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	15	23	1	8	0	5	4.2	+8
4=	Wang Hao	CHI	2727	18	21	2	6	1	5	4.1	+9
7	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	4	35	2	5	2	4.5	5.0	-5
8	Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	14	42	2	3	4	3.5	4.2	-7
9	Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	16	38	1	4	4	3	4.2	-12
10	Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	13	27	1	3	5	2.5	4.3	-18

Six players gained rating points, with the younger players faring best. The only exception was Pavel Eljanov who had a rotten time. Shirov was the other big loser.

Kramnik and Gelfand reduced the damage with last round wins but were also below par this year.

As a reminder the results of the earlier rounds were as follows:

Round 1 (5th of November):

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	0.5-0.5	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	43	Queen's Gambit Declined Lasker
Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760	1-0	Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	57	Petroff Defence
Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	0-1	Wang Hao	CHI	2727	51	French Defence
Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	1-0	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	41	Queen's Gambit Ragozin
Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	1-0	Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	58	Catalan/Bogoljubov

Round 2 (6th of November):

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	0.5-0.5	Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760	39	Nimzoindian Defence 4.g3
Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	1-0	Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	61	Slav Defence
Wang Hao	CHI	2727	0.5-0.5	Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	39	Catalan Opening
Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	0.5-0.5	Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	39	Queen's Gambit Declined
Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	1-0	Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	40	Catalan/Bogoljubov

Round 3 (7th of November):

Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	0-1	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	71	Spanish Breyer
Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760	0.5-0.5	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	70	Spanish Berlin
Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	1-0	Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	43	Catalan Opening
Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	0.5-0.5	Wang Hao	CHI	2727	22	Slav Defence
Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	0-1	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	51	Nimzoindian Defence 4.Qc2

Round 4 (8th of November):

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	0.5-0.5	Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	35	Slav Defence
Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760	0.5-0.5	Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	63	Spanish Neo-Archangel
Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	0.5-0.5	Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	43	Catalan/Bogljubov
Wang Hao	CHI	2727	0.5-0.5	Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	79	English Opening
Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	0.5-0.5	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	33	Petroff Defence

Round 5 (10th of November):

Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	0.5-0.5	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	49	Anti-Grünfeld
Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	0.5-0.5	Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760	56	Nimzoindian with g3
Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	0.5-0.5	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	79	Spanish Berlin
Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	1-0	Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	53	Semi-Slav Meran
Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	0.5-0.5	Wang Hao	CHI	2727	34	Semi-Tarrasch

Round 6 (11th of November):

Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	0.5-0.5	Wang Hao	CHI	2727	25	French Steinitz
Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760	0.5-0.5	Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	46	Sicilian Najdorf
Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	0.5-0.5	Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	33	Spanish Marshall
Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	0.5-0.5	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	32	Catalan/Bogoljubov
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	1-0	Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	49	Slav Defence

Round 7 (12th of November):

Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	0.5-0.5	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	60	King's Indian g3 Panno
Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	0.5-0.5	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	51	Grünfeld Exchange Be3
Wang Hao	CHI	2727	1-0	Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	75	Semi-Slav Defence Marshall
Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	0.5-0.5	Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760	56	Catalan Opening
Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	0.5-0.5	Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	88	Queen's Gambit Cambridge Springs

Round 8 (13th of November):

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	AZE	2763	1-0	Wang Hao	CHI	2727	36	Queen's Gambit Ragozin
Levon Aronian	ARM	2801	0.5-0.5	Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2771	28	Queen's Gambit Ragozin
Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2760	1-0	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2791	32	Petroff Defence
Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2741	0.5-0.5	Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	44	Queen's Gambit Cambridge Springs
Alexei Shirov	ESP	2735	1-0	Pavel Eljanov	UKR	2742	25	Caro-Kann

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