Ivanchuk maintains his lead after 9 rounds. However, 5 players are within 2 points of him.
Score after Round 9
Blindfold
1. Grischuk 7
2. Carlsen 5½
Ivanchuk 5½
4. Gelfand 5
Karjakin 5
Kramnik 5
7. Gashimov 4½
Svidler 4½
9. Ponomariov 4
10. Aronian 3
Smeets 3
12. Dominguez 2
Rapid
1. Ivanchuk 6½
2. Carlsen 6
Kramnik 6
4. Gelfand 5½
5. Aronian 5
Gashimov 5
Karjakin 5
8. Svidler 4½
9. Grischuk 4
10. Ponomariov 3½
11. Dominguez 2
12. Smeets 1
Combined
1. Ivanchuk 12
2. Carlsen 11½
3. Grischuk 11
Kramnik 11
5. Gelfand 10½
6. Karjakin 10
7. Gashimov 9½
8. Svidler 9
9. Aronian 8
10. Ponomariov 7½
11. Dominguez 4
Smeets 4
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Nice blindfold play by Ivanchuk vs Gashimov today. In the following position with black to move [ http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aZiTrtpwJ0I/S6lGnmwBrFI/AAAAAAAAAB0/aAZCEV1vQ3I/s1600-h/ng4.jpg ] he played the strongest move – Ng4! This years Amber has made me decide to learn blindfold chess – http://www.myopic-chess.blogspot.com/