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:
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Veselin Topalov: close to tournament victory
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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