Draws on all five boards kept the leader-board unchanged, with Levon Aronian drawing with Viswanathan Anand to inch closer to the Sinquefield Cup chess title in St. Louis (USA) on Monday.
In the eighth and penultimate round, Anand displayed sound opening preparation from the black side of English Four Knights and came out unscathed in 31 moves.
Though Aronian tried to create pressure by sacrificing a pawn in search of a breakthrough from the queen’s side an unfazed Anand proved equal to the challenge. Once the action ended for the day, Aronian (5.5 points) retained his one-point lead. As a result, Aronian needs only a draw with black pieces against Veselin Topalov in the final round to clinch the title.
Magnus Carlsen had a great opportunity to get within half-a-point of Aronian after he held a winning position against Hikaru Nakamura. But, he made some very ordinary moves and let Nakamura off the hook.
The results: Eighth round: Levon Aronian (Arm, 5.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (3); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 4.5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 4); Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 4.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 4.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 4.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 3); Wesley So (USA, 2.5) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 4).
Final round pairings: Anand v Carlsen; Topalov v Aronian; Nakamura v Grischuk; Caruana v So; Lagrave v Giri.
