A masterpiece by Topalov! He needed a win against Leko for a share of the lead. He pushed and pushed with just a tiny advantage. At the end, he succeeded! What an ultimate gamer! Bravo! That is how a World Champion should be!
Aronian and Bacrot drew in a 38 move Rook and Pawn endgame. Aronian also moved up to get a share of the lead.
Today is Ivanchuk day. Ivanchuk played like the genius Ivanchuk and not the other one to beat Vallejo.
Svildler is having a complete collapse. He lost again, this time to Radjabov. With this win, Radjabov moved up to get 1/4 share of the lead.
With one round to go, these are the standings:
1-4. 7.5 GM Peter Leko (Hungary 2740), GM Levon Aronian (Armenia 2752), GM Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan 2700), GM Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria 2801)
5-6. 6.0 GM Peter Svidler (Russia 2765), GM Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine 2729)
7. 5.5 GM Etienne Bacrot (France 2717)
8. 4.5 GM Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain 2650)
These are the matchups in the last round:
Leko – Aronian (1/2)
Bacrot – Radjabov (1/2)
Svidler – Ivanchuk (1/2)
Vallejo – Topalov (0-1)
My prediction is in ( ) above. What is the predition? 
Has Radjabov broken into the ranks of the super-GMs??? Not that FIDE 2700 is not already super, but has Teimour now greatly distanced himself from his age-group peers (e.g. Nakamura) and vaulted into the serious world-class league? He’s inching into top-10 ratings-wise, isn’t he?
Topalov rules!
The arrogance of Nakamura to refuse training help will cost him. He’s not in the same class with Radjabov.
Ben
Truly amazing win today by Toplov. The odds against him coming back after his start must have been astronomical.
Probably more important than any single game that gave him the FIDE crown in SanLuis.
Leko would be better off to lose tomorrow than to accept a draw. He has to assume that Toplolov will win so he MUST go for broke
Aronian has th easiest road tomorrow. NO pressure if he loses and huge upside if he wins
Shame I won’t be near a computer this a weekend until I am at a party tomorrow evening
Susan,
3 out of 4 isn’t bad for your pedictions, but I’m still sticking with Radjabov over Bacrot tomorrow.
I was a little disappointed with Radjabov’s draw against Pons a couple days back. I thought if he was serious about winning the tourney, there was still a lot of play left in that game. A tie with the World Champion would certainly be a feather in his cap.
We all can be happy to have a fighting champion like Topalov. I hope he will win tomorrow.
Topalov is a champ. Kramnik is a chump.
Topalov is World Champion
Very Good in the opening (Corus for example)
Very Good in the middlegame (Light advantage)
Tremendous!!! in endgame
Best Player in this World
Incredible and Gentlemen
Thanks Veselin…You Play and Win
Thanks for Chess
Yves
Vallejo-Pons vs. Topalov 0-1 70%
Paco was outplayed in an equal position in a previous game
Leko-Aronian 1-0 60%
1/2 30%
0-1 10%
Leko had black in their two draws
Bacrot-Radjabov 1/2 Most likely
Time to go home!!!
Svidler-Ivanchuk 0-1 65%
Vassily thinks he can do it again! So close! Peter wants to go home for dinner.
Anonymous Frank
unfortunately from what I have witnessed in the past few big tournaments, most of the players wanted easy fast draws in the final game. so I expect that.
Topalov might play on and go for the win. but then if the others take easy draws he just might be content with the draw. I believe he wins on tiebreak. so if everyone draws topalov will be declared the winner.
i understand that first tiebreak is number of wins. since topalov has so many loses he has to have even more wins to catch up. so he wins easy on tiebreaks.
tommy
Kramnik and Fischer are the only true World Champions. All others are products of Swiss System (Swiss Chess) chess. Goletiani, gogogo!
The tiebreak is not the number of wins but the number of losses.
I think Susan can play a simultaneous against all the US ch participant girls and win with no problems.
Automatic-Mailer XP?? What crap. Get out of here, you moron.
Party for four? You mean they will celebrate something? Please explain? Thank you.
Hi,
Where did leko go wrong ? Was it when he started to get pinned (around move 40 itself ?) Or was it the mistake much later (around 53) ?
– Vinay
That was great engame play by Topalov!!! He showed the kind of endgame persistence that seems to have declined since adjournments were abolished. I look forward to GM analysis of this game. It looks like Leko was outplayed during moves 30-40, while worrying about the clock. Topalov seems to have proved that 41e4! was very strong, but perhaps there were drawing chances?
Fischer said chess is like basketball. You throw the ball around and take a shot when you have an opening. Topalov showed mastery of that kind of play here.
Let’s hope games like this inspire other elite chess players to keep trying hard to win the endgame. Scientific equality is there at move 1. Reaching scientific equality at move 40 should not be a reason to draw and go home.
Anonymous Frank
? 54. … rd4? was a blunder – nothing more – nothing less …
greetz, Vohaul
PS: satisfied about the fact, that even chess giants somtimes miss the loss of a piece in “three” … “two” or even “one” – as i use to do … ^^ (sometimes… hehe)
Aronian won the bag of marbles. He is #1 at Linares all by himself. He beat Leko who fell into 4th place from being in 1st place just a few days ago. Topalov only drew Valejo Pons.
Nice to see a new comer like Aronian break into the big times. He has a good playing style going for the wins. Leko’s style of conservative draws did not win out at Linares this year.
This is an interesting blog you have. I’m going to bookmark you and come back, because I’m actually searching for information on how to shoot and edit videos. I’ve found a site where they have a great video course on DVD’s, but I’m looking for something a little more within my budget
Regards
Tony how to make a training video
I think Aronian will win. Leko has finished his chess carrer, when he offered a draw in a winning position. What a chicken? How can such players become the best in the world? Leko was a chicken almost all his chess life. Boys should not play chess.
Hi Susan!
Your blog just became just another place for advertisers to post their moronic products. You’re lucky no p*r* is being advertised in here. This is the end of your blog, I suppose. Good luck in the future. Internet is a scam, by the way, don’t trust what you see (even with your own eyes).
Anonymous said…
Leko has finished his chess carrer, when he offered a draw in a winning position. What a chicken? How can such players become the best in the world? Leko was a chicken almost all his chess life. Boys should not play chess.
3:12 AM
I find this one really funny. the guy complains someone else is afraid and he posts anonymously because he is afraid to use his own identity.
Come on Anonymous dont be afraid to tell us who you are. do you feel better when you put other people down. And please tell up just how high up the chess ladder you have climbed. It must be much higher than Leko.
I am particularily proud of every player in Linares this year. it was a great performance by everyone. lots of great fighting chess. great stories to make this tournament live in history. Topalov’s great story. the story of Leko. Radjabov the unsung story of the rise to the top. Aronian the magician. sat lower down and hit the jackpot at the end. As someone said. this tournament would make a great book. I agree 100%.
I thought that Topalov would win this tournament super easy before it began. at the mid point I thought he had no chance. at the end he missed by the narrowest of margins. Certainly there is great human drama in this tournament. I know people will be talking about this tournament 50 years from now.