Nanjing Finishes: Carlsen First, Anand Second
Despite the early round time, all three games were very interesting and played with a lot of energy.
The first to finish was the most important one, the Anand-Bacrot battle for second place. Bacrot beat Anand in the first cycle, but this time Anand got his revenge, outplaying the Frenchman in an old-fashioned main line Nimzo-Indian with 4.e3. Anand played very well, breaking through on the queenside long before his opponent could achieve anything real by way of kingside counterplay. As a result, Anand achieved clear second and gained some rating points, while what had earlier been a magnificent result for Bacrot wound up merely a very good one. At the end of the first cycle Bacrot was +2 and in clear second, but in the second cycle he went -2 and finished on 50%. Even so, it was enough for clear third place.
When the Anand game finished it looked like the round would be a "whitewash", i.e., a 3-0 day for the white pieces. Carlsen was winning against Gashimov and Wang Yue was doing a great job of outplaying Topalov. It didn't work out that way, however. Gashimov enjoyed some counterplay in the late middlegame thanks to the opposite-colored bishops, and Carlsen decided to bail out with a safe but very small endgame edge. Carlsen tried every trick he could, but Gashimov defended well and drew.
As for Wang Yue-Topalov, it was a tragedy for the Chinese player. He had completely outplayed Topalov, but when the ex-FIDE champ stirred up some complications Wang Yue almost immediately went wrong. Had he chosen 33.Rb3!, which wasn't that difficult to find, it's almost certain that he would have won. (I suspect he did find it, but wrongly thought his move was even better.) Instead, his 32.Ra2?? forces White to scramble for a draw (despite being a piece up in a queenless ending!), and in time trouble he made further errors and lost. Had he won, Topalov would have finished last and Wang Yue would have have broken his two year winless streak in this event.
Final Standings:
1. Carlsen 7
2. Anand 6
3. Bacrot 5
4-5. Gashimov, Topalov 4.5
6. Wang Yue 3
Official site here, games (with my comments) here.
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