Penultimate Round At Bazna
After a rest day, the ninth and penultimate round of the Bazna Kings tournament in Romania saw no change in the standings with all three games ending in draws.
Local star Nisipeanu (pictured) has had a good tournament and held Carlsen to a draw with the sharp Schliemann Defence to the Ruy Lopez.
Magnus Carlsen therefore takes a full point lead into the final round on Friday. The games in the last round start at the earlier time of 13:30 EEST (GMT+3).
The standings after round nine:
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2813 | 6½ |
| Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2741 | 5½ |
| Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2740 | 4½ |
| Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | ROU | 2672 | 4 |
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 2733 | 3½ |
| Wang Yue | CHN | 2752 | 3 |
The final round games are:
| Wang Yue | Magnus Carlsen |
| Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu | Ruslan Ponomariov |
| Boris Gelfand | Teimour Radjabov |
The games from round nine:
