Final round top matchups:
| 1 | GM Gashimov, Vugar | 6.5 | AZE | 2723 | GM Milov, Vadim | 6.5 | SUI | 2669 | |||
| 2 | GM Beliavsky, Alexander G | 6.0 | SLO | 2646 | GM Svidler, Peter | 6.0 | RUS | 2723 | |||
| 3 | GM Socko, Bartosz | 6.0 | POL | 2631 | GM Nakamura, Hikaru | 6.0 | USA | 2699 | |||
| 4 | GM Harikrishna, Pentala | 6.0 | IND | 2673 | GM Lopez Martinez, Josep Manu | 6.0 | ESP | 2540 | |||
| 5 | GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 5.5 | FRA | 2696 | GM Ganguly, Surya Shekhar | 6.0 | IND | 2614 | |||
| 6 | GM Berkes, Ferenc | 5.5 | HUN | 2651 | GM Dzagnidze, Nana | w | 5.5 | GEO | 2518 | ||
| 7 | GM Del Rio De Angelis, Salvad | 5.5 | ESP | 2532 | GM Roiz, Michael | 5.5 | ISR | 2647 | |||
| 8 | GM Pavlovic, Milos | 5.5 | SRB | 2520 | GM Avrukh, Boris | 5.5 | ISR | 2645 | |||
| 9 | GM Gurevich, Mikhail | 5.5 | TUR | 2624 | IM Gordon, Stephen J | 5.5 | ENG | 2524 | |||
| 10 | GM Akobian, Varuzhan | 5.5 | USA | 2619 | IM Szabo, Krisztian | 5.5 | HUN | 2508 | |||
| 11 | GM Berg, Emanuel | 5.5 | SWE | 2606 | IM Al Sayed, Mohamad N. | 5.5 | QAT | 2488 | |||
| 12 | GM Kotronias, Vasilios | 5.5 | GRE | 2603 | IM Kozlov, Oleg | 5.5 | RUS | 2187 | |||
| 13 | IM Hammer, Jon Ludvig | 5.5 | NOR | 2532 | GM Stefanova, Antoaneta | w | 5.5 | BUL | 2557 | ||
| 14 | IM Papp, Gabor | 5.5 | HUN | 2517 | GM Speelman, Jon S | 5.5 | ENG | 2536 | |||
| 15 | GM Golod, Vitali | 5.0 | ISR | 2575 | Lovik, Lasse Ostebo | 5.5 | NOR | 2184 | |||
| 16 | IM Houska, Jovanka | w | 5.0 | ENG | 2392 | GM Sokolov, Ivan | 5.0 | NED | 2657 | ||
| 17 | GM Sandipan, Chanda | 5.0 | IND | 2568 | IM Nezad, Husein Aziz | 5.0 | QAT | 2403 | |||
| 18 | FM Perez Ponsa, Federico | 5.0 | ARG | 2390 | GM Cramling, Pia | w | 5.0 | SWE | 2548 | ||
| 19 | FM Miedema, Roi | 5.0 | NED | 2325 | GM Berczes, David | 5.0 | HUN | 2513 | |||
| 20 | GM Carlsson, Pontus | 5.0 | SWE | 2509 | IM Capo Vidal, Uriel | 5.0 | MEX | 2336 |
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Ummm…. actually I think there are two more rounds left (10 total)
Wasn’t round 8 was completed today???
8+2=10
Naka wins again! that’s 4 in a row.
The top board was a draw, so Naka is tied for first with 1 round to go.
Great come back after losing 2 games.
Yo Mama
Nakamura’s final King march to the center beginning with 40…Ke7! took some nontrivial calculation, as there were several ways White could emerge with a passer on the vacated K-side, besides what occurred in the game. There are little hazards like 43…Ne4 44.Rd3+ Kc4?? 45.Ne5+ mate! to worry about, too. I don’t think Black can win otherwise even with the 2 extra pawns (I don’t have a chess program here in my office to check this), so this is an especially instructive point. The finale with 54…h3! was neat. The game is viewable here, third game.
Got to agree with KWRegan, Nakamura played very strong. To me he appeared to be lagging in development, however, white had no immediate pawn breaks to get to the black king and as soon as the queens were exchange (probably white should have moved the king away from g1 earlier) he was just cruising to victory. And yes, very neat finish.
Beelze
As it happens, apparently Black can hold onto eir two pawns with 40…h5, the other natural move. White’s 41.b4 and 42.Rd3 (threat Rd8+ and mate) look imposing, but 41…Nb7 42.Rd3 Nbd6 turns out to be fine. But although my Rybka at first docks Hikaru down from 2.50 to 1.15 for the King moves, a longer look confirms that things keep trending Black’s way after that. So the King march was still a good plan—and for a Move-40 commitment, a bold one.