Magnus Carlsen and Wang Hao are still tied for first place in Biel as both won their games in round 8. The Norwegian defeated Victor Bologan with White, while the Chinese won with Black against Hikaru Nakamura. With two rounds to go, Anish Giri is still one point behind the leaders as he won against Etienne Bacrot. Carlsen's live rating is now 2846.4 – he needs to win his last two games in Biel as well to break Garry Kasparov's all-time record of 2851.

The playing hall in Biel | Photo Biel Chess Festival

One remarkable thing of the 8th round in Biel was that the results were exactly mirrored from the same pairings in round 3, which meant that Wang Hao, Carlsen and Giri defeated their opponents Nakamura, Bologan and Bacrot 2-0. After this hattrick of wins the standings actually didn't change that much. Nobody moved to a different place; only the difference between the top three players and the rest was increased with three points.

Nakamura-Wang Hao was a fascinating fight. The Chinese decided to just copy Veselin Topalov's moves of Wijk aan Zee 2012, where the Bulgarian had reached an excellent position against Nakamura's English Opening. Naturally the American deviated at an early stage, and got some advantage. However, with 28...Nc7! Wang Hao was hanging on, and then Nakamura suddenly missed a tactic that threatened to trap his queen. Afterwards he would tweet:

Very disappointing day. Hao defended quite well and like too many times all too recently, I completely lost my head and my nerves.

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Video produced by Pascal Simon (Chessbase)

For the second time in this tournament Victor Bologan played the Benkö/Volga Gambit, and Magnus Carlsen went for the main line. Well, until move 11 because then the Nowegian played 12.Qe2 where 12.Re1 and 12.h3 have always been the main options. The pawn sac 15...h6 is critical for the theory in this line, but Bologan retreated his queen quickly (which was new). With some nice prophylactic moves Carlsen kept an advantage and after reacting well to Bologan's double-edged plan with his f-pawn, the Norwegian never let go.

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Anish Giri admitted that he had been lucky to win his game against Etienne Bacrot. Starting his analysis with commentator GM Klaus Bischoff he said

I'll never play Sicilian again, ever, in my life. I played terribly.

and afterwards the Dutchman tweeted:

My najdorf play (mainly 19...bxa3??) was asking for trouble, but luckily Bacrot got confused :) So far so lucky, tomorrow Carlsen :P

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Video produced by Pascal Simon (Chessbase)

Biel 2012 | Schedule & results

Biel 2012 | Round 8 standings

Biel 2012 | Round 8 standings (classical)