The Week in Chess

Levon Aronian made light work of the task of drawing with black against Veselin Topalov. Topalov spent some time in the morning preparing a sharp line but this was a line Aronian had prepared in detail and had reviewed before the event. He played quickly and forced Topalov into giving perpetual check. This victory brings to end a dry spell lasting since January 2014 when Aronian won the Tata Steel tournament.

Hikaru Nakamura won the last game to finish beating Alexander Grischuk in the final game of the day to finish. The game saw fluctuating fortunes after a fairly dull opening. Grischuk stood better at a couple of points but it was mostly Nakamura pressing and he emerged with a win in the end and joint second in the event.

The remaining games were drawn.

Final standings: Aronian 6pts, Giri, Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura 5pts, Topalov, Grischuk 4.5pts, Anand, Caruana 3.5pts and So 1.5pts

The Grand Chess Tour with 13 points for the winner, 10 p0ints for second and 8 for third sees all to play for in the final event at the London Chess Classic December 3rd to 13th.

Tour standings: 1 Topalov 17 3 Nakamura 16 9 Aronian 15 7 Carlsen 14 4 Giri 13 2 Anand 12 6 Vachier-Lagrave 12 5 Caruana 9 8 Grischuk 8 10 Hammer 1 11 So 1.

The result also strengthens Anish Giri's chances of qualifying for the Candidates on rating. All the players apart from Carlsen and Grischuk move on to the FIDE World Cup in Baku 10th September to 4th October where two more Candidates places are available.