Morozevich and Svidler (!) win

Both Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler had a good day today. Moro managed to beat Ivanchuk with Black, who now suffered two losses in a row. Positionally Black looked ugly, but that one weakening of White's king position proved decisive. 35.Db3 might have been playable for White. Leko went for winning a pawn but Svidler had tasty compensation with his bishop pair and nice centre. The position was difficult to play for White and after 32.c4? it was suddenly completely lost (necessary was 32.c3). Nothing changed on the top of the field. Again Anand was satisfied with a quick draw against Aronian and Carlsen did fine with Black against Topalov. Something he described yesterday as "there may be nothing tougher". The kid passed yet another exam.



Standings after round 12:

  1. Anand                           7,5
  2. Carlsen                          7
  3. Svidler                         6,5 
  4. Aronian                          6
5-7. Topalov,Ivanchuk, Morozevich    5,5 
  8. Leko                            4,5

Tomorrow, Thursday 8 March, is a restday in Linares. The decisive phase then starts. On Friday, Bobby Fischer's birthday, the 13th round is played:

Anand      ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Leko
Aronian    ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Ivanchuk
Morozevich ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Topalov
Carlsen    ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Svidler

Saturday is the 14th and last round:

Leko       - Carlsen
Svidler    - Morozevich
Topalov    - Aronian
Ivanchuk   - Anand