The Week in Chess

Veselin Topalov lost to Anish Giri allowing Viswanathan Anand to move within half a point with a round to go. Topalov has white against Anand in the final round.

Topalov was ground down by Giri after getting a passive position out of the opening. Probably Topalov's 15...Qc8 was an attempt to play for a draw 15...Ng5!? and Giri got a small positional edge. 34...h5 was bad and Giri gradually brought home the full point.

Anand defeated Jon Ludwig Hammer from a less than impressive opening (according to him) but Hammer gradually came under pressure and 25...Bxc1? (25...Rb8 should hold) after 25 minutes thought brought about a quick collapse of his position.

Magnus Carlsen beat Levon Aronian but he wasn't at all happy with the quality of the game. After allowing near equality and getting into time trouble there was a tactical position where both sides missed chances before Carlsen won a lot of material before first time control.

"A pretty bad game from start to finish." Carlsen who thought he was outplayed for much of the game. "31...Nd3 was just a crazy move." Carlsen who thought 31...Rd3 and Aronian at least wouldn't have lost. "He's outplayed more than any other player in the world." Carlsen on Aronian. "Most of all I want to get this over with." Carlsen who says that being able to "dream of 50%" was reasonably pleasant after his start.

Alexander Grischuk gradually got into trouble against Fabiano Caruana but the game finished in a draw. Hikaru Nakamura was close to winning against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave but allowed the position to run out of control and dropped a pawn and all winning chances in the end.

Round 8 standings: Topalov 6pts, Anand 5.5pts, Giri, Nakamura 5pts, Caruana, Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave 3.5pts, Aronian, Grischuk 3pts, Hammer 2pts,

Round 9 pairings: Vachier-Lagrave-Grischuk, Aronian-Nakamura, Hammer-Carlsen, Topalov-Annad, Caruana-Giri.