Three draws in round 8 Nanjing

Updated: Aug 31, 2011, 2:50 AM | 0 | Chess Event Coverage

In round 8 of the Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing all three games ended in draws before the first time control. Carlsen kept his full point lead in the standings; Anand and Bacrot share second place.

General info

The third Kanion Cup Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament takes place October 21-30 in Nanjing, China. Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Veselin Topalov, Wang Yue, Vugar Gashimov and Etienne Bacrot play a double round-robin with one rest day halfway. More info here.

Videos

Round 8 report

Today's round was the shortest so far, with all games ending in draws before the first time control and one game even lasting just 14 moves. Bacrot was apparently happy to draw with the white pieces against Gashimov, who could hardly play for a win himself in an Exchange Slav. The only thing to write about is that Bacrot had exactly the same draw with Gustafsson in January this year, but even that is a just a minor detail.

Carlsen watches Bacrot and Gashimov playing a quick draw

A bit better was Wang Yue-Carlsen. The Chinese grandmaster finally got his act together and played a fine game with the white pieces, keeping a small but nice advantage out of the opening. Carlsen gave a pawn ("an ugly pawn") to chase away the white pieces from the queenside and then a tiny inaccuracy by Wang was enough for the Norwegian to equalize completely.

Nothing changed in the standings today, except for the number of rounds still left - guess who's happy with that

Luckily for the fans there was also the game between Anand and Topalov, the matadors from the last World Championship match. Today the two fought out a complicated Catalan. Both players were having issues remembering all the prepared lines and getting the different move orders right, and then at some point Topalov duly sacrificed a knight on f2.

This move "was prepared by, as usual, by Ivan Cheparinov and me", Topalov said at the press conference. "After sacrificing the knight Black is getting close to full compensation," Anand said. Both players admitted that 24.Qd4 would have been better - this move gives some winning chances for White. "Somehow I missed something after 24.Qd6," Anand added. In the game the Indian soon realized that it was too dangerous to avoid his opponent's perpetual check.

Games round 8

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Pearl Spring (Nanjing) 2010 | Schedule & results

Pearl Spring (Nanjing) 2010 | Round 8 standings

L-R An Indian chess fan, Anand, Topalov and his second GM Ivan Salgado Lopez

Photos by Yu Feng

Links

Official website
Games in PGN via TWIC

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