Not everything is 100% yet in computerville, but it's good enough to take time to catch up. Let's start with the main tournament that's still underway, the Grand Prix event in London. When we left off after round 7, Boris Gelfand enjoyed a half-point lead over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, with Peter Leko, Alexander Grischuk and Veselin Topalov a further half point back.
In round 8 Gelfand had an excellent chance to extend his lead, as some excellent preparation with White in a Bayonet King's Indian gave him a big advantage over Anish Giri. Maybe there wasn't a clear-cut win anywhere, but he definitely didn't make the most of his chances. (Most commentators lay the lion's share of the blame on his 30.Rf1. Mikhail Golubev in Chess Today suggests 30.g4, which my engine also likes, and 30.Qg4 is also very strong.)
The game was eventually drawn, but that was enough for Gelfand to maintain his lead. Mamedyarov drew comfortably with Black against Topalov, keeping half a point back in clear second. Leko missed a chance to catch up with him when he failed to capitalize on a big advantage against Grischuk. He had a great position on the white side of an English Attack, and probably would have enjoyed a winning attack after 22.g6. He preferred the safe but slow 22.c3, which maintained a decent advantage, but more slow play several moves later (e.g. 26.Rh3 rather than 26.Rh8) allowed Grischuk to emerge unscathed.
There were a couple of decisive games on the day. One was Kasimdzhanov-Adams, which seemed to be headed for a routine draw by the time they reached a queen and knight ending with equal pawns. Adams started to drift, however, and then in a position that was still equal but required a little precision he quickly collapsed, possibly due to time trouble. 37...Qd4 (with the idea of meeting 38.Qe8 with 38...Qe4+ followed by 39...Qf5) would have kept life and limb intact; instead, after 38...h5? 39.Qe8 Qg7 40.e4 he was lost, facing an ugly dilemma. If he didn't play 40...Nf6, then sooner or later White's knight will embed itself on f6, leaving Black's king hopelessly weak and his queen a prisoner on g7. On the other hand, 40...Nf6 - the move chosen - lead to the loss of a crucial pawn after 41.Nxf6+ Qxf6 42.Qf8. White's king was perfectly safe, so in the absence of counterplay the game was over in a few more moves.
The other decisive game was Nakamura-Ivanchuk. After a couple of losses Nakamura probably felt he was playing it safe with the Exchange Ruy (surprisingly, he played an old-fashioned line with Qxd4 rather than Nxd4), and as in the Kasimdzhanov-Adams game things seemed headed for a peaceful conclusion. However, despite the presence of opposite-colored bishops in the minor piece ending resulting after 27 moves, Black had some small trumps: a better centralized king, a more active bishop, and some pressure against White's queenside pawns, not to mention the possibility of creating an outside passed pawn. Had Nakamura been in good form, this probably wouldn't have been enough to win, but Nakamura has been in anything but good form in this tournament. 34.Nf1 was a big mistake, compounded by 35.Ne3. Allowing Black to create a passed a-pawn for free was more than White's defense could accommodate, and Chuky went on to win.
Moving on to round 9, we finally had a shakeup at the top of the leaderboard. Gelfand was "punished" for failing to take advantage against Giri, and was flat-out crushed by Grischuk in a short game. Gelfand either missed Grischuk's 23.Bxe6 sac or, more likely, overlooked or underestimated 25.Qg4. Either way, it was a disaster, compounded by having almost every one of his main rivals managing to win!
Grischuk caught him, as did Topalov. Ivanchuk lost to the latter in a way that bore a little resemblance to his win against Nakamura in the previous round. In both cases a minor piece ending arose where Black stood better thanks to an outside passer - again an a-pawn! - and while it probably should have been drawn it wasn't automatic. Anyway, whatever it should have been in an ideal world, Ivanchuk didn't come close to a perfect defense, and quickly fell apart after making the time control.
So that put three players on 5.5/9, in a tie for second. Mamedyarov leapfrogged Gelfand while staying ahead of the others by defeating Dominguez in a classic two bishops vs. two knights ending. Fear the bishops!
A last note on the round: Nakamura lost his fourth consecutive game ("Audi rings"), this time going astray with Black against Mickey Adams in a classical Caro-Kann. I suppose it's true what they say: The harsh and cruel reality of playing in an individual chess event is that you are only as good as yourself, without teammates to buck you up and bail you out.
Here are the pairings for the penultimate round (underway now), with player scores in parentheses:
The latter game was drawn. Wang Hao had some hopes based on his better structure, but with active play Mamedyarov managed to hold the balance and reach a drawn rook ending. Dominguez-Ivanchuk was also drawn, with White failing to obtain anything serious with the Ruy against Ivanchuk's passive but solid Steinitz Deferred. It's early in the second time control, but as the other four games still have plenty of life in them we'll wait to report on them. And now you're caught up!