Topalov wins again (and Bu too!)
Veselin Topalov hit again. In the 6th round of the Pearl Spring tournament the world's number one defeated Levon Aronian, to raise his "live rating" over 2800. The Bulgarian still has to share the lead in Nanjing with Bu Xiangzhi, who defeated Movsesian. Ivanchuk escaped with a draw against Svidler.The 1st Pearl Spring Super GM Tournament takes place December 11- 21 in Nanjing, China. It's a six-player double round robin event with Veselin Topalov ( 2791), Vassily Ivanchuk (2786), Levon Aronian (2757), Sergei Movsesian (2732) Peter Svidler (2727) and Bu Xiangzhi (2714). Live games start daily at 15:00 local time which is early morning for Western countries (08:00 CET, 02:00 EST).Round 6
Against Aronian, Topalov faced the same type of position in which he defeated Ivanchuk in the decisive round of the Bilbao Grand Slam in September. And again it was a strong, protected d-pawn on the seventh rank that got him a decisive advantage today. Armenia's best did manage to get rid of that nuisance, but couldn't save himself. Like Ivanchuk he tried to get the important move ...c6-c5 in by tactical means and he was more successful than the Ukrainian, but White still kept a nagging plus. Later Topalov could have won more easily, but he probably never really let the win slip away. On the live rating list (of which the top 10 is permanently shown in the far right column on this website) Topalov now has a fantastic 2802 next to his name.
Ivanchuk escaped against Svidler after an opening experiment didn't work out. White got a healthy plus pawn but couldn't convert it to a win. Bu Xiangzhi made the local organisers even more happy by adding another win to his score, against Movsesian. He was only slightly better for a long time but in timetrouble Movsesian went wrong, allowing White to sacrifice an exchange for a winning attack.
We also have some good news about the future of this tournament: Macauley Peterson (Chess.FM blog) informed us that according to Silvio Danailov, Pearl Spring is "guaranteed for five years and will enter in Grand Slam from next year."Games of the 6th round:
[TABLE=526] [TABLE=534] Below are some photos from the excursion on the rest day, provided by the tournament organisers:
We recognize Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam (New in Chess), Boris Kutin (President of the European Chess Union), Arianne Caoili and Levon Aronian taking a picture
Peter Svidler and his wife, Veselin Topalov, Boris Kutin and Silvio Danailov
Levon Aronian, not sure yet what he's looking at!?
Silvio Danailov, sometimes a manager, sometimes a tourist...
...but still the man behind the world's number one
The Svidler couple chatting with Ten Geuzendam
Aronian and Caoili: chess celebs and paparazzi at the same time
Links:
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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