Tashkent Grand Prix: Three way tie

At the start of the final round, there were two leaders  ,Morozevich and Mamedyarov with 6 points. No less than five players were in the next group and had the chance to catch up. They were Caruana, Karjakin, Wang Hao ,Kasimdzhanov and Ponomario.

After four hours of play, Rustam Kasimdzhanov had drawn with Boris Gelfand. Morozevich drew with Svidler thus ensuring a minimum first place tie as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov seemed to self destruct against Wang Hao. Morozevich games are always great for spectating. Later Svidler commented "Games vs Alexander Morozevich tend to get watchable at some point, as a rule"

This left Caruana, Karjakin and Ponomariov with chances of catching Morozevich and Wang Hao with a win. Ponomariov lost two pawns against Karjakin but the former defended tenaciously and posed numerous difficulties over the board. However Karjakin overcame them all and so it was a matter of time before Karjakin brought home the full point.

In the battle of the tail-enders, Dominguez finally scored his first win over Gata Kamsky and thus relegated the latter to the cellar. Former World Championship challenger, Gelfand had a terrible tournament finishing tenth with two losses and no wins.

Morozevich back in lead

Just one more round today and we will find out who is the eventual winner of the Tashkent Grand Prix. The last round will start three hours earlier , 2:00 PM Malaysian time.

Morozevich played an attacking game yesterday to win against Peter Leko. The leader Karjakin lost to Mamedyarov and this means the latter share the lead with Morozevich. Both games are very entertaining and worth replaying below.

The standings before the final round:

Both Mamedyarov and Kasimdzharov are still undefeated. It is interesting and typical of such an event (where there are so many strong players ) that half the field still have chances to finish first, if things go their way!