Bu Pushes Topalov To The Brink

The highlight of round 7 of the Pearl Spring tournament was the much anticipated clash of the joint leaders, local hero Bu Xiangzhi (pictured) and the world's top ranked player Veselin Topalov.

We are used to Topalov sacrificing the exchange in his games, but against Bu he seemed to just blunder it away instead.  It looked like Bu would make his advantage count and take the spoils, but Topa fought hard and managed to hold the endgame.  A remarkable draw!

In the other games Vassily Ivanchuk lost to Lev Aronian, thereby losing both his games against the Armenian in this double round-robin event, and Peter Svidler gained revenge for his loss against Sergei Movsesian in round 2.

All the games can be found below, plus a bonus from round 4 of the Grand Prix tournament in Elista, featuring a stunning move by Etienne Bacrot which caused Peter Leko's instant resignation.  See if you can find White's 31st before replaying it on the board - it's the sort of move that will be included in many chess puzzle books for years to come!

The standings after round 7 in Nanjing:

Suits you, Sir! The usual suspects pose before round 7 - pic from http://blog.sina.com.cn/chessnews