Alexei Shirov continues to live a charmed existence at the Shanghai Masters, while Wang Hao remains firmly beneath the black cloud that has followed him throughout the event. The Chinese player had a big advantage from the opening and obtained a won position, but let Shirov slip out. Wang still had a draw for the taking for about 15 moves in a row, but - perhaps lamenting the missed opportunities earlier - overpressed and got punished. With the win Shirov clinched clear first (and thus qualification to Bilbao) with a round to go with an impressive score of 11/15 (4-1 [+3 =2] in normal scoring; they're using a 3-1-0 system).
With a win Levon Aronian would have guaranteed qualification to Bilbao as well, while a draw would have made it extremely likely. He had White, but Kramnik was very well-prepared in a Catalan (this is not a surprise!) and reached a winning ending with an extra exchange. He messed it up at one moment, allowing Aronian a neat draw, but the Armenian missed his chance and then Kramnik reeled in the full point.
[UPDATE 1: The only error was with the relay: Kramnik didn't make the error in question. This has been fixed in the game file (link below).]
[UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: There was no error, only well-meaning spectators a bit too sure that Kramnik and Aronian couldn't have made the back-to-back errors they did. The earlier "correction" has been fixed.]
Kramnik's tournament had been pretty luckless so far (at least devoid of good luck), but thanks to good play in this game and the exchange of gifts in the ending he caught up with Aronian at 6 points (+1 =3 -1). In the last round Kramnik will have White against tailender Wang Hao (=2 -3), which certainly looks like the ideal pairing, while Aronian will have Black against Shirov. But I'm not really sure. For one thing, Shirov's play has been extremely volatile, so I suspect Aronian will have his chances. Give Anand White and the task to draw, and it's all over, forget about it. But Shirov? (And who says he wants to draw?) As for Kramnik, he has alternated some very good play and good prep with oversights in almost every game, so if Wang Hao stays alert Kramnik might give him a gift.
The next question is this: what happens if Kramnik and Aronian finish tomorrow tied for the second qualification spot? Does anyone know? [UPDATE 2: They'll play a pair of blitz (4' + 3") games, if necessary, and if it's still tied there will be an Armageddon game. White will have 5 minutes, Black 4 plus draw odds.]
Today's games, with my comments, are here.