The first two days of the Leon rapid tournament were excellent, and the finale only build on what came before. Gelfand pulled out a 4-2 victory the hard way, coming back from a loss in game 3 to win in game 4, forcing tiebreaks, and then winning the tiebreaker 2-0. Having four decisive games is pretty nice to start with, but by far the most amazing game of the series was the first one - an absolutely insane draw that was thrilling from start to finish. I have to do a show on this game somewhere, but only after I've really done my best to figure things out on my own. See for yourselves here, if you haven't already.
The Karpov tournament in Poikovsky was more mundane, as usual. For the fourth time in five rounds, there were only two decisive games*; for the third time, it was Karjakin and Jakovenko figuring in. In rounds 2 and 4 they were winners, but this time they lost (to Vitiugov and Sokolov, respectively). So we have a five-way tie for first between Vitiugov, Sutovsky, Jakovenko, Riazantsev and Karjakin. They're half a point ahead of two players, Bologan and Motylev, and then the other five players are just one more half a point behind. In other words, the distance from first to last in this oddly symmetrical tournament is one point.
* Mad props, as they used to say, to the pairs Sutovsky-Motylev, Bologan-Riazantsev and Jobava-Rublevsky, who managed to draw their games in 21, 13 and 15 moves, respectively. These guys are making a great case for the Sofia rules, but I still prefer my solution: issue a warning, and then don't invite them back for two years - as in don't invite them back to any round-robins, anywhere, for two years. The occasional short draw is one thing, but this tournament is loaded with them. Of the 30 games, six have gone fewer than 20 moves, and three more have been drawn in under 30.