Norway chess 2015 - GOTD Round 8

Opening: E10: Queen's Pawn Game

Player(s): Giri, Topalov

GM Max Dlugy recaps Round 8. After yesterday's calm round, today the players in Stavanger unleashed hell, to make round 8 the most exciting one so far. Topalov felt the pressure of needing just a draw to win the tournament with a round to spare, and played unusually passively against young Giri, who punished Veselin winning the game. Anand, on the other hand, crushed Jon Ludvig Hammer in 36 moves, showing that he's not ready at all for retirement. Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian threw pieces at each other, losing opportunities and playing dubious moves, only to show that even the greatest players in the world can make mistakes, and giving all of us some hope about our game. Aronian blundered, and you don't blunder and get away with it against the Norwegian genius, even when he's not having a great tournament. Carslen won, climbing to -1 now, and tomorrow he plays his friend and fellow countryman Hammer. It'd be strange to think that Magnus won't win the last game, mitigating with a final 50% performance the disastrous start of the tournament. Nakamura drew MVL and Grischuk drew Caruana. With a round to go, Topalov is still up there alone with 6 points, but Anand now is only half a point behind, and tomorrow they will face each other, in a sort of Zinnemann's High Noon drama. Nakamura and Giri follow with 5 points, unfortunately out of any chance to win the event. Tomorrow last round, 10AM EDT - 16:00 Central Europe, 15:00 London.

Teacher's library (22)

Teacher's library (22) E10 Giri Topalov recap