1. St. Louis: There were two draws tonight and not much action, but that's not to say there was lack of effort. In the Nakamura-Ponomariov game, the culprit was the infallible drawing weapon of 2011, the Queen's Gambit Declined. Nakamura had only the tiniest of edges throughout, and the only achievement was to keep beating a dead horse to move 51. I will register my mild disappointment in Ponomariov for repeatedly avoiding a cute stalemate at the end of the game (I suspect that Nakamura played the last few moves hoping for the sake of aesthetics that Ponomariov would head for it, but alas). To pick out one point of several where this could have arisen, Black could have played 50...Kh6 instead of 50...Kg8. Then White seemingly wins a pawn with 51.Rf7, but then 51...Rh1+ 52.Kg4 Rxh4+! 53.Kxh4 is stalemate. White can avoid this with 52.Kg3, for instance, but Black still plays 52...Rxh4, when neither 53.Rxh7+ nor 53.Rxf6+ Kg5 54.Rf7 Rg4+ followed by 55...Rf4 gives White even microscopic winning chances.
Robson-Finegold was a Topalov Dragon, and Robson had a new move ready: 17.g4. Whether prepared for this or not, Finegold reacted very well, and managed to neutralize White's prospects. A drawn rook ending was the result, and once 30 moves had been played and (thus) draw offers were permitted, a handshake was in order.
Ponomariov and Nakamura are therefore tied at 2-2, while Robson continues to lead by a game at 2.5-1.5.
2. Havana: In tonight's penultimate round, Le Quang Liem beat Navara, Andreikin drew with Dominguez, and Ivanchuk erased the stain of his loss to Bruzon in the first cycle with a quick win this time around. About the loss: the initial version of the game score made the result utterly mysterious, as Ivanchuk stood a little better in the alleged final position when he lost. As reader "Ivapatzer" informed me earlier today, however, that wasn't the end of the game. Ivanchuk pressed for another 30+ moves, and pressing finally turned into overpressing and suicide. After his revenge game tonight, however, he's back in the hunt for first. Le Quang Liem is in clear first with 6.5 out of 9, and Ivanchuk is in clear second with 5.5, and they play in the last round with "Chuky" getting the white pieces. (Their two battles can be replayed here, albeit without notes.)
3. Lublin: For the third round in a row there were three draws against a single win. Today's victor was Boris Grachev, whose win over Bartosz Socko put him into a tie for second with Sergei Zhigalko at 4/6, half a point behind of Alexei Shirov. Shirov will have White against Grachev in the final round, while Zhigalko is due for White against Krishnan Sasikiran.
4. Gran Canaria: Finally, in the Bahia Feliz tournament - also entering its final round tomorrow - Vallejo Pons is in clear first after beating Mecking with Black. Nyzhnyk was tied for first entering the round, but only managed a draw against Mateo. Vallejo has 6/8, and Nyzhnyk is in clear second half a point behind.