The blindfold competition ended in a four-way tie for first. Aronian, Kramnik, Morozevich and Topalov all scored 6˝ points from 11 games.
In the overall standings four players finished in second place. According to the Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak Vladimir Kramnik won second prize, while Peter Leko took third prize. The tiebreak decided on the trophies, the prize-money for second place Kramnik and Leko shared with Veselin Topalov and Magnus Carlsen.
Levon Aronian already secured tournament victory yesterday. Today he drew both his games against Peter Leko. In the final standings the Armenian grandmaster finished on 14˝ points ahead of Kramnik, Leko, Topalov and Carlsen.
With the final round starting at 12.30 (two hours earlier than the other rounds) Vladimir Kramnik wasn’t too happy that he had to play in the first session. After all the Russian likes to sleep till the early afternoon. But now that he was up anyway he was determined to put Sergey Karjakin to a tough test. They entered into a theoretical discussion of the popular Moscow Variation and for a long time they followed a game Alekseev-Bareev from the recent World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. At the time the line was considered innocent for Black, but Kramnik had the feeling that White had chances anyway. And he set to work, pressing with small means. After the game he criticized his 39.Kh3, where a bishop move would have been better, trying to prevent Black’s freeing …e3. The position still looked dangerous for Black, but no matter how he tried Kramnik failed to break Karjakin’s fortress.
In the rapid game Karjakin got a pleasant edge against Kramnik’s Slav Defence. But once he released the tension the Ukrainian youngster had nothing to be proud of anymore. According to Kramnik he should have played 23.Bg5 (instead of 23.Rf1) and Black would face a long defence. As Kramnik put it: ‘I would probably make a draw, but it would be no fun.’
In a Sicilian Najdorf Vishy Anand didn’t manage to pose any serious problems to Loek van Wely. But once he had emerged from the opening with a satisfactory position the Dutchman wasn’t too ambitious and after twenty moves he proposed a draw. Which was accepted.
The rapid game took exactly the same number of moves. In a Queen’s Indian Defence the players went for a drastic exchange variation and called it a day when the board started to look boringly empty.
In the fight for last place Shakriyar Mamedyarov was lucky to win the blindfold game against Boris Gelfand. The Israeli grandmaster emerged from the opening with pleasant play. On move 22 he had a pleasant choice. He could take the white pawn on b4 or he could play 22…Be6, exchange bishops and transfer his knight to d5. Or go 22…Nd5 right away. Instead, Gelfand went berserk with 22…f4 followed by 23…Bxf4, a break that didn’t work and left him with a lost position. But Mamedyarov wasn’t playing impeccably either and Gelfand could have fought his way back into the game with 32…Rxf4!. Once he missed this sudden chance his position rapidly went downhill and the fact that he let himself be mated only sped up the end.
Gelfand had his revenge in the rapid game. Which as a matter of fact didn’t start too encouraging for him. As he put it himself, his play wasn’t ‘too imaginative’ and Mamedyarov reached a strategically winning position. But instead of calmly strengthening his position, the Azeri grandmaster tried to break open the position with …g5. This gave Gelfand counterchances that he grabbed with both hands. And which he enjoyed. After the game he talked with a broad smile about the creative pawn pushes that drove his opponent to the brink of the abyss.
In the blindfold game between Veselin Topalov and Vasily Ivanchuk persistence carried the day. The Bulgarian got a pleasant position out of the opening, but nothing more than that. And then he just decided to ‘stay’ and wait and see what happens. Successfully so. Ivanchuk allowed the exchange of queens and then White had excellent prospects with two bishops and a strong initiative. Topalov was unsure if the position had been winning, but it certainly was an uphill struggle for Black. Gradually Ivanchuk lost the battle and on move 53 he resigned.
The Ukrainian grandmaster got the opportunity to hit back in the rapid game. In a level position, Topalov blundered 20…Bd7 (a better idea would have been 20…Bxd4 for instance) and was immediately punished by 21.Ne6. The rest of the game was torture for the Bulgarian, as White’s task was rather elementary.
Peter Leko tried to play for a win against Levon Aronian, but he tried to do so with caution. Indeed White got a slight plus, but it didn’t amount to much. No one was really surprised when on move 25 the players began a repetition of moves.
Aronian made a cautious attempt to get an opening edge in the rapid game, without achieving anything tangible. He enjoyed the manoeuvre 17.Ne4 followed by 18.d5, but apart from its aesthetic value it had little to offer. In a rook ending with opposite-coloured bishops the players decided that enough was enough.
Magnus Carlsen has gained a reputation in this Amber edition of saving rook and knight endings with a pawn down. Against Alexander Morozevich he added a third example to his collection. Afterwards the Norwegian confessed that he was sure he had been lost somewhere. But he also said that he had expected the game to end in a draw soon after 38…h4. Carlsen spoke critically about his removing his knight from a6 in the hope of disturbing the coordination of White’s pieces. Instead he should have left the knight there. Still, fighting with his usual resilience he managed to save the draw. At the end of this long game Morozevich demonstrated his sense of humor when in an elementary drawn pawn ending he forced the draw by stalemating the black king.
The rapid game was also a long affair. At first Carlsen was better, but then, as he remarked with a wry smile he managed to confuse himself and ended up in a worse position. To complicate his task he was also low on time. The game had a confusing end. In a position where both players believed that a perpetual was inevitable they agreed a draw. Several colleagues in the hospitality lounge were quick to point out that this was not the case at all. Morozevich could have played on and Carlsen would have needed an inspired defence to survive.