Pearl Spring And Grand Prix Events Continue

There are many so called 'super-tournaments' these days, but it still unfortunate that there are currently two occurring at the same time.

First, in Nanjing, we have the Pearl Spring tournament.  After a promising start, rounds 3 and 4 were rather dull affairs with all games ending in draws, but Topalov (pictured) beat Svidler in round 5 with a lovely exchange sacrifice to join local favourite Bu Xiangzhi in the lead at halfway.

The rest day before game 6 seemed to liven up the players and Topalov and Bu won their games against Aronian and Movsesian respectively to widen their gap at the top of the leaderboard to a full point.  This victory also saw Topalov's live rating rise above 2800 again.

The scores after round 6:

Ivanchuk and Svidler at the round 4 press conference.  Pic from http://blog.sina.com.cn/chessnews  

Meanwhile, the Grand Prix may be in organisational chaos, but the latest hastily re-arranged event in Elista is providing some entertaining games.  Round 1 saw Wang Yue's remarkable undefeated streak of 82 games come to end when he lost to Jakovenko on the black side of the Berlin defense.  The Berlin 'Wall' took another blow from Gashimov who beat Eljanov in the only other decisive game of the first round.

However, it is ratings favourite Teimour Radjabov who holds a narrow lead after round 4, thanks to victories against Etienne Bacrot and former FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov- the latter win being a particularly brutal demolition of the Sicilian Dragon.   Official site here.

The standings after round 4: