R8: Anand beats Topalov

Corus round 8 see the world's no. 2 (and world champ) against the world's no. 3: Anand-Topalov. In C, the top clash Braun-Caruana is scheduled.


After today, Carlsen is still the sole leader with 5,5 out of 8, while Anand is now shared 4th, thanks to his smooth victory against Topalov: exchanging the black-squared bishops turned out to be not so bad for White, and so it was actually Vishy refuting Veselin's prepared idea (11...g6) over the board. Especially 28.h3! and 37.Ka2! were great ones. Learn more from the press conference.

The other six games ended in a draw. In Eljanov-Adams, a Catalan, White didn't achieve much out of the opening - Adams thinks 14.Nxd7 gives more chances than 14.Nc6. Mamedyarov-Aronian was a Meran with 11...Qc8 as the new move, which after 12.e4 (according to Aronian not the strongest) led to an equal position shortly. Nothing special either in Van Wely-Leko, but that's no surprise with the super-solid Hungarian playing Black. Radjabov-Ivanchuk was quite an interesting Caro-Kann where 18...c5 was a novelty (compared to Morovic Fernandez-Karpov, Cap d'Agde 2002). Unfortunately the complications led to a short and peaceful outcome soon as well. For a long time Carlsen had a slight edge in an ending but because of Black's great bishop and very active play, White couldn't really get anything more than a weak plus pawn.

The B group was of course shaded by the Short-Cheparinov Soap. The game is now scheduled tomorrow at 13.30, as along as Cheparinov has apologized before 11.00 hrs. Meanwhile, Movsesian took sole lead by beating Spoelman nicely, followed on a half point by Bacrot. The Frenchman tried to win a two vs one pawn (!) ending for almost fifty moves against Hou Yifan, but the Chinese girl defended flawlessly.

In C, Caruana beat Braun very maturely, actually by slowly grinding down his opponent. The German, who started so well, now has to beat Carlsson with Black next Tuesday to score his last GM norm over nine rounds.

Lastly, two Honorary Draws among the veterans. Portisch-Ljubojevic wasn't too much of a game, but Korchnoi got quite far against Timman, and so the Dutchman needed all his fame as an endgame specialist to defend a rook ending sucessfully.

Grandmastergroup A L. van Wely - P. Leko ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? M. Carlsen - B. Gelfand ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? V. Anand - V. Topalov 1-0 V. Kramnik - J. Polgar ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? T. Radjabov - V. Ivanchuk ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? S. Mamedyarov - L. Aronian ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? P. Eljanov - M. Adams ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?

Grandmastergroup B N. Short - I. Cheparinov M. Krasenkow - G. Sargissian ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? E. Bacrot - H. Koneru?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? P. Harikrishna - E. L'Ami ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? Y. Hou - I. Nepomniachtchi ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? D. Stellwagen - J. Smeets ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? W. Spoelman - S. Movsesian 0-1

Grandmastergroup C I. Krush - P. Carlsson 1-0 A. Braun - F. Caruana 0-1 J. van der Wiel - E. Grivas 1-0 S. Li - D. Reinderman 0-1 A. Ushenina - D. Ruijgrok 1-0 F. Nijboer - M. van der Werf 0-1 P. Negi - Z. Peng 1-0

Schedule/results Honorary Four:

Round 1 - Saturday the 19th L. Ljubojevic - J. Timman 0-1 V. Kortchnoi - L. Portisch 1-0	Round 2 - Sunday the 20th V. Kortchnoi - J. Timman ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ? L. Portisch - L. Ljubojevic ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?	Round 3 - Tuesday the 22nd J. Timman - L. Portisch L. Ljubojevic - V. Kortchnoi
Round 4 - Wednesday the 23rd J. Timman - L. Ljubojevic L. Portisch - V. Kortchnoi	Round 5 - Friday the 25th L. Portisch - J. Timman V. Kortchnoi - L. Ljubojevic	Round 6 - Saturday the 26th J. Timman - V. Kortchnoi L. Ljubojevic - L. Portisch

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Complete schedule + results »

New photos by forest:




External links:

• Tournament website
• Macauley's videos
• Live web commentary (Chessdom)
• Web commentary Chesspro (Russian)
• Photos by the official tournament photographer Fred Lucas
• Photos by Frits Agterdenbos (ChessVista)
• PGN A group, B group & C group