London Grand Prix 9th Round Thrills
After a rest day on Sunday, the refreshed players were in a fighting mood in round 9 of the FIDE London Grand Prix!
Boris Gelfand lost his first game of the tournament against Alexander Grischuk, which allowed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to snatch the lead with just two rounds remaining. Mamedyarov beat Leinier Dominguez Perez with an aggressive attacking game to take his score to 6/9.
Elsewhere, Veselin Topalov scored his second win of the competition against an out-of-sorts Vassily Ivanchuk, and Michael Adams piled on the agony for Hikaru Nakamura by inflicting a fourth consecutive loss on the American.
The standings after 9 of 11 rounds
| # | Name | Fed | Elo | Pts |
| 1 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2729 | 6 |
| 2 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2754 | 5½ |
| 3 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2752 | 5½ |
| 4 | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2738 | 5½ |
| 5 | Leko, Peter | HUN | 2737 | 5 |
| 6 | Wang, Hao | CHN | 2742 | 4½ |
| 7 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2730 | 4 |
| 8 | Kasimdzhanov, Rustam | UZB | 2684 | 4 |
| 9 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2769 | 4 |
| 10 | Adams, Michael | ENG | 2722 | 4 |
| 11 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | CUB | 2725 | 3½ |
| 12 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2783 | 2½ |
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Alexander Grischuk beat Boris Gelfand in round nine
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Beware the Shak attack! Mamedyarov takes the lead in London
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Veselin Topalov is one of three players just half a point behind the leader
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Last-minute replacement Michael Adams is holding his own in London
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Peter Leko clung on for a draw against Wang Hao
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Rustam Kasimdzhanov survived a breakthrough in a blocked position by Anish Giri
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On Sunday's rest day, many of the players visited the Saatchi Gallery's Art of Chess exhibition
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The London Grand Prix is the first tournament of the 2012/13 FIDE Grand Prix series. After London the series moves on to Tashkent, Lisbon, Madrid, Berlin and Paris. Each tournament is a single round-robin featuring 12 out of the 18 players in the Grand Prix, and each player competes in four of the six events. Details of dates and participants can be found here.
The overall winner and runner-up of the Grand Prix qualify for the March 2014 Candidates Tournament.
The schedule for the London Grand Prix:
| Arrival & Opening | 20th September |
| 1st Round | 21st September |
| 2nd Round | 22nd September |
| 3rd Round | 23rd September |
| 4th Round | 24th September |
| 5th Round | 25th September |
| Free Day | 26th September |
| 6th Round | 27th September |
| 7th Round | 28th September |
| 8th Round | 29th September |
| Free Day | 30th September |
| 9th Round | 1st October |
| 10th Round | 2nd October |
| 11th round & Closing | 3rd October |
| Departure | 4th October |
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Rounds start at 14:00 local time (13:00 UTC). The time control is 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in 1 hour, then an extra 15 minutes to a finish with a 30 second increment after the second time control.
Draws can only be claimed for triple-repetition of position, theoretical draws, or 50-move rule.
The official regulations for the 2012 FIDE Grand Prix can be found here.
Official website here. Games via TWIC. Photos by Ray Morris-Hill (except Saatchi gallery photo by Nastya Karlovich - see more here).
Look out for coverage at Chess.com/TV!
