Topalov beats Ivanchuk, point clear as Bu loses to Svidler

Veselin Topalov defeated Vassily Ivanchuk at the Pearl Spring tournament today, and with just two more rounds to go the Bulgarian is suddenly very close to tournament victory. One point behind are Bu Xiangzhi, who lost to Peter Svidler, and Levon Aronian, who drew with Movsesian.

The 1st Pearl Spring Tournament takes place December 11- 21 in Nanjing, China. Topalov ( 2791), Ivanchuk (2786), Aronian (2757), Movsesian (2732) Svidler (2727) Bu Xiangzhi (2714) play a double round-robin. Live games start daily at 15:00 local time which is early morning for Western countries (08:00 CET, 02:00 EST).

Round 8

All of a sudden Veselin Topalov is very close to another tournament victory, after he won the Bilbao Grand Slam Final earlier this year. There he beat Ivanchuk in the decisive round using 1.d4, and today he won again, this time with 1.e4.

Ivanchuk went for the solid but passive Four Knights Sicilian, and his new move gave White easy play. Black miraculously survived the attack, but only to find himself in a lost ending which was finished in great style by Topalov.



The other leader, Bu Xiangzhi, suffered his first loss after blundering in the endgame. Svidler, who probably missed a win earlier in the game, was slightly better but the position was probably a draw. However, losing a vital tempo, Bu found himself in a lost bishop ending.



Movesian easily drew Aronian thanks to a good piece of preparation in the Slav.



And so Topalov is a point clear, with two rounds to go. His Black game against Svidler tomorrow is crucial; if he doesn't lose, the tournament is virtually in the pocket.

Games of the 8th round:

[TABLE=526] [TABLE=538]

Links:

• Tournament website
• Live games
• http://www.64ge.net/
• Gujuan Tzu's Chessnews Blog
• TWIC's games in PGN