The Daily Update: Gelfand Wins Match vs. Leko; Anand, Carlsen to Play for First
Monday, August 30, 2010 at 1:59AM
Dennis Monokroussos

There were two (interesting) draws today between Boris Gelfand and Peter Leko, and that means that their rapid match ended in a 4.5-3.5 victory for Gelfand.

As for the Arctic Securities Chess Stars, Viswanathan Anand repeated his day 1 performance, beating Jon Ludvig Hammer and Judit Polgar before acceding to a last round draw with Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen, on the other hand, did not match Anand's (or his own day 1) performance. He pressed hard against Polgar in round 4, but if anything ended up losing ground before achieving a draw. In round 5 he even managed to lose to his countryman Hammer - for the first time in 10 years! All the same, he qualified for Monday's final 4-game match with Anand, and as far as I'm aware Anand's 1.5 point margin in the preliminaries is of no relevance to the final match. (If I'm wrong - e.g. if Anand wins the event in case of a 2-2 tie by virtue of his superior score in the prelims - please let me know.) Hammer and Polgar will also play on Monday to settle who gets third and who finishes fourth.

Article originally appeared on The Chess Mind (http://www.thechessmind.net/).
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