Carlsen wins Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament with one round to spare

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010

Magnus Carlsen

See more photos of the champion at www.chesspics.com

Hi Everybody,

Carlsen sealed his first place at the Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament on Friday with a win over Veselin Topalov in the ninth round. A knight fork did it all. Carlsen is now ahead of the rest of the field with 1.5 points and only one round is left.

Meanwhile, in the ninth round, the other two games - Anand-Gashimov and Bacrot-Yue - were drawn. The 2010 Nanjing International tournament is taking place from October 19 to 30 in Nanjing, China.

It is a ten-round double round-robin event, in which each player faces every other player twice, once with the white pieces, and once with black. The time control is 40 moves in two hours then 20 moves in one hour followed by the rest of the game in 15 minutes with a 30 second increment as of move 61.

Carlsen now has 6.5 points while both Bacrot and Anand have 5 points with Bacrot a little better on tie-break. Gashimov has 4 points while Topalov has 3.5 points. Wang Yue has 3 points.

Here are the nice games from Round 9. Check them in flash below or run the moves through our pgnplayer.

PGN: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.Re1 Nd6 6.Nxe5 Be7 7.Bf1 Nxe5 8.Rxe5 O-O 9.Nc3 Ne8 10.Nd5 Bd6 11.Re1 c6 12.Ne3 Bc7 13.c4 Nf6 14.b3 d5 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.Qf3 Be6 17.Ba3 Re8 18.Bb5 Bd7 19.Bxd7 Qxd7 20.Bb2 Be5 21.Bxe5 Rxe5 22.Nc2 Rae8 23.Rxe5 Rxe5 24.Qc3 Re8 25.Qd4 b6 26.f3 Rd8 27.Ne3 Ne8 28.f4 Nc7 29.f5 Ne8 30.Re1 Nf6 31.Ng4 Nxg4 32.Qxg4 h6 33.Qf4 Re8 34.Rxe8+ Qxe8 35.Kf2 f6 36.g4 Qc6 37.Qe3 Kh7 38.a4 Qd6 39.Kg2 a5 40.Qe8 Qb4 41.Qg6+ Kg8 42.Qe8+ 1/2-1/2

PGN: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.O-O Be7 8.Nc3 Nxc3 9.bxc3 Bg4 10.Re1 O-O 11.Bf4 Bh5 12.Rb1 Rb8 13.Qe2 Bd6 14.Qe3 Qd7 15.Ng5 h6 16.Nh3 Bg4 17.Qg3 Bxh3 18.Bxd6 cxd6 19.Qxh3 Qxh3 20.gxh3 Rfd8 21.Rb5 Kf8 22.Reb1 b6 23.Rxd5 Rbc8 24.c4 Ke7 25.Re1+ Kf8 26.Rb1 Ke7 27.Re1+ Kf8 1/2-1/2

PGN: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Bxd2+ 5.Qxd2 d5 6.Bg2 c6 7.Nf3 Nbd7 8.O-O b6 9.Rc1 O-O 10.b4 Bb7 11.Qb2 Rb8 12.Nbd2 Qe7 13.e3 Rfc8 14.Rc2 c5 15.bxc5 bxc5 16.Qa3 Rc6 17.Rac1 Ra6 18.Qd3 h6 19.Qe2 dxc4 20.Qxc4 cxd4 21.Nxd4 Rb6 22.Bxb7 R8xb7 23.Kg2 Ne5 24.Qc5 Qxc5 25.Rxc5 Rb2 26.R1c2 Nd3 27.Rc8+ Kh7 28.N4f3 a5 29.h3 a4 30.a3 g5 31.Rxb2 Rxb2 32.Rc3 Nxf2 33.Rc7 N2e4 0-1

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