There were no changes for the top six players (by place, not rating) in round 9 of the Grand Prix finale in Khanty-Mansiysk. There almost were, but it didn't happen.
The most amazing save happened in the game between Dmitry Jakovenko and Boris Gelfand. Gelfand was very well-prepared with Black in a Najdorf Sicilian, rattled out his first 23 moves, and had he played 24...Qd7 it would have repeated the position and the game would have ended two moves later. That was the move he prepared, but suddenly he got a brainstorm. He thought for half an hour and played 24...Nd7, incredibly overlooking Jakovenko's very next move! (This is Gelfand's own admission.) Just like that he was lost (and out half an hour to boot), and while he put up a good fight he remained completely lost (excepting a couple of brief, missed semi-reprieves when he could have been just much worse) for the next 23 moves. The last trick was 48...g4, when Jakovenko would win fairly easily with 49.Ke3 or 49.Kg3. Instead, he took the pawn, which was a blunder. He was cognizant of stalemating motifs but thought he could simply refrain from capturing Black's knight. He had missed 50...Nd5+, when not taking allows a perpetual (unless he wants to lose his queen), while taking (the path chosen in the game) allows the stalemate or a repetition. Jakovenko was understandably unhappy, but errare humanum est!
Fabiano Caruana also missed a winning chance today, albeit one which was far less ripe for the taking than Jakovenko's. Caruana played brilliantly in a drawn bishop ending against Sergey Karjakin and somehow managed to convert it into a queen ending that was a tablebase win. Tablebases are wonderful tools, but (thankfully) most players lack access to their outputs during a tournament. Maybe Caruana could have pushed Karjakin harder than he did, but it isn't really appropriate to blame him for failing to win that ending.
Caruana remains in first (half a point of the other three players just mentioned) and tied with Hikaru Nakamura and Leinier Dominguez. Nakamura had White against Alexander Grischuk and did not miss any wins. Grischuk held relatively comfortably with Black in a Gruenfeld, and they called it a day after just 31 moves. Dominguez's game with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was also short - a draw by repetition in just 28 moves - but it was a bit mysterious as Dominguez seemed to have the advantage. Dominguez was apparently more concerned about his pawn deficit than about Black's pinned knights, and decided to call it a day.
Those were the draws du jour; there were also two victories. The long-suffering Evgeny Tomashevsky finally avoided a long and heart-breaking game, managing to defeat Peter Svidler on the black side of an Anti-Marshall. Svidler should have played his 23rd and 24th moves in the reverse order (i.e. 23.d4 Nd3 24.Bxc4), with equal chances; his version left him in a difficult spot and Tomashevsky never let him escape (though he did miss an easier win with 39...Rbb2). The other victory was a miniature, with Anish Giri beating Baadur Jobava in just 25 moves. (I didn't see the press conference, so someone will have to tell me if there were any fireworks off the board.)
Here are the pairings for round 10:
Will there be a real game between Caruana and Nakamura, or will they try to coast in to qualification?