The Chess Mind

All the leaders drew their matches, and that means that Levon Aronian has won the event. After he drew both games with Vladimir Kramnik and the Peter Leko-Magnus Carlsen contest was also split, he maintained a 2.5 point lead with just 2 games to go. Congratulations to Aronian are in order, and while this is just one event, it is becoming increasingly possible that Anand's tenure on top of the rapid chess pile (at least post-Kasparov) is at an end.

In other action, Topalov defeated van Wely 1.5-.5 and joined the tie for second. Anand defeated Gelfand in the blindfold game, and had he won the rapid game he'd have joined the tie; unfortunately, he lost, and with White. Finally, Mamedyarov and Morozevich defeated Ivanchuk and Karjakin, respectively, by identical 1.5-.5 scores.

Leading Blindfold Standings after Round 10:

1-3. Kramnik, Aronian, Morozevich 6
4-7. Topalov, Leko, Anand, Carlsen 5.5

Leading Rapid Standings after Round 10:

1. Aronian 7.5
2-5. Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Leko, Topalov 5.5

Overall Standings:

1. Aronian 13.5
2-5. Kramnik, Topalov, Leko, Carlsen 11
6-8. Anand, Ivanchuk, Morozevich 10
9. Karjakin 8.5
10-12. Gelfand, Mamedyarov, van Wely 8

Final Round Pairings:

Kramnik - Karjakin
Leko - Aronian
Morozevich - Carlsen
Topalov - Ivanchuk
Anand - van Wely
Mamedyarov - Gelfand

(These are the colors for the blindfold games; flip it around for the rapid games.)

All the games can be found on the tournament site; I'll have a selection of games from rounds 9 and 10 in a subsequent post.