After Bu almost beat Ivanchuk yesterday, he surprised everyone by winning his game against Topalov today! Ivanchuk increased his lead by drawing Aronian and the same result was seen in Radjabov-Cheparinov.Before we knew it two games had already finished today. Especially Radjabov-Cheparinov wasn't too exciting but that's not surprising since both players played the Russian Team Championship, Baku and now M-Tel. Because of some negative experiences with the White pieces, Radjabov playing White was happy with a draw today. Aronian got a slight advantage against Ivanchuk but he also thought of some previous games ("I've had many good positions during this tournament") and decided to repeat the moves.And so Ivanchuk could increase his lead by half a point going into the final round, since Bu Xiangzhi picked today's game against Topalov to score his first victory! At first Topalov was better in the ending (24.Qb5 was not a great move but Bu had missed 26...Ng4) but with about ten minutes for eight moves the Bulgarian made two mistakes in a row: 32...Bg6?! and 33...Bc5?!, when suddenly White was winning.
Pairings last round:Topalov, V - Radjabov, T
Cheparinov, I - Ivanchuk, V
Aronian, L - Xiangzhi, Bu
Perhaps Topalov will join Cheparinov and l'Ami for the last-round preparation, because Cheparinov is now the only person who can stop Ivanchuk from winning this tournament clear first (and Toppie has to win himself too of course).Don't forget: tomorrow the round starts one hour earlier.
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