Aronian Leads Into Final Round At Amber
The amazing Lev Aronian won yet again today at Amber to take a full point lead into the final round.
Aronian (pictured) defeated Topalov in their blindfold game, and a draw in the rapid game gave the Armenian another 1.5-0.5 match victory.
Magnus Carlsen is the only other player who gets even close to Aronian's score, but he couldn't close the gap despite winning his rapid game with Grischuk for a 1.5-0.5 match victory of his own.
There were only two other decisive games: Boris Gelfand beat Anish Giri in the blindfold and world champion Vishy Anand won his rapid game with Vugar Gashimov to move into third place.
The results in round 10:
| Blind | Topalov-Aronian | 0-1 |
| Kramnik-Ivanchuk | ½-½ | |
| Karjakin-Nakamura | ½-½ | |
| Blind | Gelfand-Giri | 1-0 |
| Grischuk-Carlsen | ½-½ | |
| Anand-Gashimov | ½-½ | |
| Rapid | Aronian-Topalov | ½-½ |
| Ivanchuk-Kramnik | ½-½ | |
| Nakamura-Karjakin | ½-½ | |
| Rapid | Giri-Gelfand | ½-½ |
| Carlsen-Grischuk | 1-0 | |
| Gashimov-Anand | 0-1 |
The standings with one round remaining:
| 1 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2808 | 14.5 |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2815 | 13.5 |
| 3 | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2817 | 11.0 |
| 4 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2779 | 10.5 |
| 5 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2747 | 10.0 |
| 6 | Gashimov, Vugar | AZE | 2746 | 9.5 |
| 7 | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2733 | 9.5 |
| 8 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2774 | 9.5 |
| 9 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2775 | 9.0 |
| 10 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2776 | 9.0 |
| 11 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2690 | 7.0 |
| 12 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2785 | 7.0 |
The final round draw for tomorrow looks like this (note that games start 2 hrs earlier):
| 12.30 | Blind | Carlsen-Gelfand |
| Gashimov-Grischuk | ||
| Giri-Anand | ||
| 14.00 | Blind | Ivanchuk-Topalov |
| Nakamura-Kramnik | ||
| Aronian-Karjakin | ||
| 15.45 | Rapid | Gelfand-Carlsen |
| Grischuk-Gashimov | ||
| Anand-Giri | ||
| 17.15 | Rapid | Topalov-Ivanchuk |
| Kramnik-Nakamura | ||
| Karjakin-Aronian |
Aronian has won the blindfold section with a round to spare...
...and Carlsen has won the rapid section
Valuable experience for Giri, but he has found the competition tough
Anand has performed well, yet has been outshone by Aronian and Carlsen
More images from the Amber courtesy of the Association Max Euwe:
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