Wijk aan Zee, Round 9: Kramnik Beats Carlsen, Catches Shirov in First

What a round!

Shirov drew easily with Ivanchuk to guarantee himself at least a share of first by round's end, leaving Carlsen and Kramnik to battle it out to catch him. Despite Carlsen's humorous (but not necessarily completely insincere) claim on Facebook that he would "crush Kramnik like a bug", it was Kramnik who won the game, telling viewers at his press conference that the game felt "like the best I have ever played!" I don't think it was in fact the best game he ever played, but it was a very creative achievement against a great player, and given its competitive importance and that he won with Black it's easy to understand his enthusiasm. The win left him tied for first with Shirov, and they are now a full point ahead of Carlsen and Karjakin.

Karjakin got where he is by defeating Nakamura, who overpressed with White and slipped into a tie for 5th-7th places with Dominguez (who had a Short draw) and Anand (who pushed Tiviakov but finished with draw #9).

There were two other decisive games in the A group, as van Wely and Smeets restored a little Dutch pride, grinding down Leko and Caruana respectively in long endgames.

Standings After Round 9:

1-2. Kramnik, Shirov 6½

3-4. Carlsen, Karjakin 5½

5-7. Nakamura, Dominguez, Ivanchuk 5

8-9. Anand, Leko 4½

10. Caruana 3½

11-13. Short, Tiviakov, van Wely 3

14. Smeets 2½

Round 10 Pairings:

Anand - Shirov (This would be an interesting time for Anand to wake up.)

Kramnik - Ivanchuk (Kramnik is hot and Ivanchuk has cooled off, but you never know...)

Karjakin - Carlsen (Battle of the prodigies! Karjakin is making a little comeback, so he may still have ambitions of keeping his title.)

Dominguez - Nakamura (Two fighters running out of time to battle for first.)

Leko - Short

Caruana - van Wely

Tiviakov - Smeets

In the B group, Giri was finally defeated, losing to Anna Muzychuk. It seemed to me that he was in trouble, got out, and then went crazy trying for activity and lost, but maybe he wasn't as safe as I thought he was. Despite the loss, his score of 6½ is still enough to give him a half-point lead over L'Ami and Ni Hua, with So and Naiditsch another half a point back.

In the C group, Robson fell out of first place in dramatic fashion, blundering into mate in one against one of his closest rivals, Li Chao. Li Chao is now in clear first with the popular score of 6½, with Robson, Vocaturo and Swinkels all on 6 points.

I'll annotate and present a number of games later tonight; for now, here's the site for more info, here's the tournament site, and here's the (no doubt abbreviated) transcript of Kramnik's press conference, with a replayable board.