Three of the four games were drawn today. Topalov tried hard and even sac a pawn. At the end, Leko defended well (with the White pieces) to maintain his lead.
Vallejo and Ivanchuk had an uneventful draw. I would probably try a little harder if I was Vallejo. He would have had no risk playing on for the win.
Svidler had a good game against Radjabov for while. But the young lad defended very well and held on for a draw.
Aronian played another beautiful and very complicated endgame today (with the Black pieces) to beat Bacrot. He has shown that he is the real deal with his 2750+ rating. I am very impressed.
GM Leko – GM Topalov 1/2
GM Vallejo – GM Ivanchuk 1/2
GM Svidler – GM Radjabov 1/2
GM Bacrot – GM Aronian 0-1
At the end of the first half of the event, the standings are:
1. 5.0 GM Peter Leko (Hungary 2740) +3
2. 4.5 GM Levon Aronian (Armenia 2752) +2
3. 4.0 GM Peter Svidler (Russia 2765) +1
4-5. 3.5 GM Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine 2729), GM Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan 2700) =0
6. 3.0 GM Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain 2650) -1
7. 2.5 GM Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria 2801) -2
8. 2.0 GM Etienne Bacrot (France 2717) -3
Was luckless Bacrot greedy on move 19? It looked like 19 Bxa8 Rxa8;
20 Rxa1 Kxd6 21 a3 might have been better for him.
Bravo Aronian the cheap tactissimo!
An impressive demonstration of pawn power in the ending!
Anonymous Frank
Haha I like your pictures. It seems you put up some pictures from Arches National Park in Utah. I know it must be difficult to match a picture for every article. It’s just that often times the association between picture and article is obvious (Topalov in the cold; a winter scene) that when you do put a picture with no association with the article it really makes one think to see if there is a deeper meaning LOL.
There is a meaning 🙂 It is up to you to figure it out 🙂
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
http://www.SusanPolgar.com