The Chess Mind

Round 13, the final round, is underway, so I'll keep this relatively brief.

The big result of round 13 was Carlsen's win - with Black - over Kramnik. Kramnik losses are rare enough, and he loses with White just a little more frequently than Roger Federer loses a tennis semi-final. Anyway, Carlsen played very well, and, helped along by a Kramnik miscalculation on move 29, he managed to win the game and catch Aronian in first place. As all the other games relevant to first place were drawn, the key standings saw Carlsen and Aronian with 7.5 and Anand and Radjabov with 7. With Carlsen playing Radjabov in the last round, anything could happen!

Round 12 Results:

van Wely - Anand 1/2-1/2
Kramnik - Carlsen 0-1
Radjabov - Leko 1/2-1/2
Mamedyarov - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Eljanov - Topalov 1-0 (!)
Adams - Polgar 0-1
Aronian - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 12:

1-2. Aronian, Carlsen 7.5
3-4. Anand, Radjabov 7
5. Ivanchuk 6.5
6-9. Leko, Adams, Kramnik, Mamedyarov 6
10-11. Topalov, Polgar 5.5
12. Eljanov 5
13. van Wely 4.5
14. Gelfand 4

Pairings for Round 13: (The last round)

Ivanchuk - van Wely
Polgar - Aronian
Topalov - Adams
Gelfand - Eljanov
Leko - Mamedyarov
Carlsen - Radjabov
Anand - Kramnik

Other Groups:

In group B, Movesian continued his winning ways, defeating L'Ami, while his closest pursuers (Short and Bacrot) drew each other. Thus with one round to go, the leading standings are:

1. Movsesian 9
2-3. Short, Bacrot 8

Meanwhile, in Group C, Caruana continued to win. Of those entering the round within a point of the youngster, only Negi kept pace. He's still a point back with a round to go, but as they're playing each other (Caruana has White) anything's possible.

1. Caruana 9
2. Negi 8

Finally, in the finale of the Honorary Group, Timman beat Korchnoi's 1...e5 in the last round, while Ljubojevic defeated Portisch. The final standings look like this:

1. Ljubojevic 4
2-3. Timman, Korchnoi 3
4. Portisch 2