The FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Tashkent reminded me of races inside a velodrome, where for a long time the cyclists go incredibly slowly before going all out in a mad dash to the finish. So it was here, with the number of wins and the fight in general increasing as the tournament neared its end. One player lead, to be caught the next round by a partner, only to have a third player leapfrog the round after, as if in a bubbling cauldron of convection currents.
Recall that the penultimate round saw then-leader Sergey Karjakin lose to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who was joined in first by Alexander Morozevich, who led through most of the early rounds. "Naturally", then, Mamedyarov lost in the final round to Wang Hao (who hadn't previously led at any point in the tournament, but now tied for first), Morozevich held on to draw against Peter Svidler's dangerous sacrificial attack, and Karjakin won a long, hard ending against Ruslan Ponomariov to reclaim a share of first.
In other games: Peter Leko tried very hard and generally played very well against Fabiano Caruana, but just couldn't quite put him away, and the game was drawn. Rustam Kasimdzhanov - Boris Gelfand was a drawn Sveshnikov Sicilian. I'm pretty sure Gelfand had prepared everything through at least move 29 for the Anand match, and he was never under even a wisp of pressure. Leinier Dominguez defeated Gata Kamsky after the latter blundered with 25...Rc4?? Kamsky finished dead last (Dominguez had been in that spot going into the round), and may have suffered the worst tournament of his professional life, at least since his first super-tournament as a teenager.
They don't use tiebreaks in the Grand Prix Events, so here are the final standings:
1-3. Karjakin, Wang Hao, Morozevich 6.5 (out of 11)
4-6. Kasimdzhanov, Mamedyarov, Caruana 6
7-9. Svidler, Ponomariov, Leko 5.5
10. Gelfand 4.5
11. Dominguez 4
12. Kamsky 3.5