We start our speedy roundup with the penultimate round of the Kings Tournament in Bucharest. It took a while, but at last another decisive result is in the books: Veselin Topalov defeated Liviu-Dieter Nispeanu in a game that is reminiscent of his old, top form: an interesting and dangerous opening idea followed by constant pressure, often leading to his opponent's collapse. Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana vs. Vassily Ivanchuk finished in a (very lively) draw, so Ivanchuk and Topalov are tied for first entering the final round. They play, while Caruana has the chance to join his fellow 2700s in abusing Nisipeanu. If he does and the leaders draw, three of the four players will tie for first; probably not a unique occurrence in a high-level tournament with four players, but certainly a rarity.
In the Women's World Championship the top 12 seeds advanced, eight matches are going into playoffs, four day one losers struck back with wins today and only one rating favorite lost her match. That was Yelena Dembo, who was only 26 rating points higher than her conquerer, Nino Khurtsidze. As for the American contingent, they've gone 1-1-1: Tatev Abrahamyan unfortunately lost her match to the world citizen, Anna Zatonskih beat Carolina Lujan of Argentina, and Irina Krush must defeat Li Ruofan in tiebreaks in order to reach round 2.
Finally, the current season of the U.S. Chess League has been underway for some time now, but I hadn't followed this year's action too closely. There was a game tonight though that caught my eye, so you might want to have a look yourselves.