The Chess Mind

We're in a holding pattern, as not only Leko but everyone else drew their games. Starting with Leko's game, he introduced a novelty on move 23 against Bacrot's Petroff, and then spent the next three moves more or less undoing it. The game made it to move 41, but without any drama.

Aronian could have caught Leko with a win, but with Black against Svidler he was satisfied with a 20 move siesta. Topalov's game with Ivanchuk was lively by comparison, but he was unable to achieve anything either. The Vallejo-Radjabov game was quite interesting, however, culminating in a complex knight ending. I recommend that the reader work out the ending for herself, and will wait to annotate that game.

Round 12 Results:

Leko-Bacrot 1/2-1/2
Svidler-Aronian 1/2-1/2
Topalov-Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Vallejo-Radjabov 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 12:

Leko 7.5
Aronian 7
Radjabov, Topalov 6.5
Svidler 6
Bacrot, Ivanchuk 5
Vallejo 4.5

Pairings for Round 13: (On Friday)

Topalov-Leko (last chance!)
Aronian-Bacrot
Radjabov-Svidler
Ivanchuk-Vallejo

To replay the games, click here.