After going 3/3 yesterday, Aronian almost lost his place in the final today. He lost his first two games, and it was only in the last round that he secured his place in the final. There he will meet Nakamura. Movsesian and Bologan will play for third place.
Nakamura won convincingly in the final. He had a shaky start in the group stage (losing first two games), but then won 7 games in a row! Third place match was won by Movsesian.
In the chess960 open tournament four players are leading with perfect sccore after first 5 rounds. (at least) the winner will be invited to next years 960 championship.
Group play in Rapid World Championship starts tomorrow. Aronian has a busy schedule, first he played a 40 board simultaneous exhibition, then 960 championship, and now he will also play the rapid championship. Also with a busy schedule is Movsesian: he played chess 960 championship, plays in chess960 open, and is scheduled to play in rapid open too. Today he has been playing the whole day, from 11.00 to 22.00
Grischuk wins the chess960 open and qualifies for next years chess960 rapid world championship, where Nakamura will defend the title that he won this year. Kamsky looked like the winner before the last round, but then lost to Kasimdzhanov.
Ok, after wandering to random chess for last couple of days, we are now back to standard chess.
Aronian and Nepomniachtchi are leading after first day with 2.5/3. Anand, who won this competition 11 times, is trailing with disapointing 1/3. Naiditch didn't manage to get from the starting mark (see games and crosstable above)
Anand continued with yesterday's (poor) performance and didn't manage to qualify for the big final! This is certainly a sensation.
The final will be between Levon Aronian and Ian Nepomniatchtchi. Anand and Naiditch play for 3rd place.
In open tournament 8 players are leading with a perfect score. Among them is the chess960 open winner Alexander Grischuk. After his win he said in an interview that his goal is to win both opens. If he succeds, he will be the first player to do so.
Aronian may have lost the chess960 title to Nakamura, but he won the rapid title.
Anand continued to play unrecognizable and only managed 4 relativly short draws in match for 3rd place. There seems to be no blitz play-off for 3rd place.
Open tournament was won by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who will try to dethrone Aronian next year.
