Aronian Beats Anand At Amber
As always, there was some lively and interesting play in the blindfold games at Amber, but all six of the decisive results in round eight came from the rapid games, and all from the white pieces.
After a quick draw in their blindfold game, Lev Aronian scored a vital win against Vishy Anand to keep his nose ahead of Magnus Carlsen, who beat Veselin Topalov.
Vassily Ivanchuk kept his recovery rolling along nicely, with a rapid win against Boris Gelfand after long hard-fought draw in their blindfold game.
Hikaru Nakamura scored a much-needed win against Grischuk, while Giri's second win of the event lifted him out of last place, to be replaced by Kramnik (!) who lost to Gashimov.
Tomorrow (Monday) is a rest day, so the next round is on Tuesday 22 March, and Chess.com will have live coverage for all members starting 6:20 Pacific Time in the US.
The results on day 8:
| Blind | Grischuk-Nakamura | ½-½ |
| Anand-Aronian | ½-½ | |
| Gelfand-Ivanchuk | ½-½ | |
| Blind | Kramnik-Gashimov | ½-½ |
| Karjakin-Giri | ½-½ | |
| Topalov-Carlsen | ½-½ | |
| Rapid | Nakamura-Grischuk | 1-0 |
| Aronian-Anand | 1-0 | |
| Ivanchuk-Gelfand | 1-0 | |
| Rapid | Gashimov-Kramnik | 1-0 |
| Giri-Karjakin | 1-0 | |
| Carlsen-Topalov | 1-0 |
The standings after day 8:
| 1 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2808 | 11½ |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2815 | 11 |
| 3 | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2817 | 8½ |
| 4 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2779 | 8½ |
| 5 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2747 | 8 |
| 6 | Gashimov, Vugar | AZE | 2746 | 8 |
| 7 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2775 | 7½ |
| 8 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2774 | 7½ |
| 9 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2776 | 7 |
| 10 | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2733 | 7 |
| 11 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2690 | 6 |
| 12 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2785 | 5½ |
Aronian's good record against the world champion continues
Carlsen keeps up the chase by beating Topalov
Ivanchuk won his rapid game with Gelfand after an amazing draw in the blindfold
Back to winning ways, Nakamura beat Grischuk
Giri is no longer in last place after beating Karjakin
Another bad day for Kramnik, losing to Gashimov to slip to last place
Photos: Association Max Euwe
