Carlsen will beat Anand tomorrow:)

You just knew that McShane-Polgar would be a game that excites and it did not disappoint. Most entertaining.

Somewhat ugly win for Kramnik today, and Anand remains unimpressive and stands to finish at .500 or less.

What happened in the Anand-Nakamura game? Vishy was going really good after the knight sac. but he could just wait for the last couple of moves before the time control. He rushed 40. Re8, I do not think it was necessary. After that 44.g6? I was just thinking Rb6 to cut off the black king then tie Naka's pawns. You can even go with the king to stop the pawns. But Vishy just made unnecessary pawn moves and let Naka to push his pawns. After that Naka was about to win, he even got the queen! Both of them must be tired, there is nothing to explain this ups and downs in the game. But anyway I enjoyed the game! Sorry about Vishy though, he is kind of losing his killer instinct.

Wow, Judit really crushed McShane. Shortest game of the tournament? McShane has been quite disappointing at this LCC.

Anand-Nakamura was really entertaining. A great game to watch, even if both players let the win slip away. The feisty Anand in the post-game was great as well ... the "pull a Garry" comment was hilarious, if a tad unprofessional for Anand.

Kramnik continues his great run. Jones never really stood a chance, did he?

Carlsen was great in the commentary room. His off the cuff knowledge of opening theory and chess history was pretty amazing. I look forward to seeing the battle between the world no.1 and WC tomorrow ... a fitting end.

Waw Anand-Nakamura, what a game !

After watching live streaming, I am simply amazed with how brilliant Carlsen is. His memory is quite extraordinary, he remembers games (including blitz games), when and where they were played, and even related trivia, like "in this blitz game the clocks stopped and they had to adjourn it" or what Korchnoi said about Short's play after their 1996 game (Short himself had no idea). And by the way, Short is a clown-grandmaster.

I enjoyed the Nakamura Anand game too, I havent looked at the Polgar McShane game yet and look forward to going over it.

Kramnik now at his former peak elo and probably will go beyond it and play as well or better than ever which is a monumental task.

Ok Polgar McShane game was good also but as it was lopsided and she trounced Luke I like the Anand Nakamura game better. Stll nice to see Judit play so crisp making Luke look like a club player.

Wow, incredible. In a field this strong 6/7 and still not sure to win the tournament... Normally +3 should be adequate! Great performances by Carlsen ánd Kramnik. Can't wait for the last round and the next tournament they will both participate.
Definitely the top 2 of the world today!!

Armageddon to determine the winner of Kramnik wins and Carlsen draws tomorrow? That's such a stupid mode IMO. Even just playing Blitz until someone wins is better.

As usual, Anand was completely trolled by Naka. But Anand showed in the press conference that he has calculated very long sharp lines in a short period of time. A true world champion. For instance he considered 32.Raf1 in a fraction of a second, evaluated it very quickly, then played something else.

Both McShane and Nakamura missed several wins against Anand, but even beating Carlsen with black would probably not lead to a higher finish than 5th of 9. Another unimpressive tournament by Anand added to this sequence:

Bilbao 2011: 3-5th of 6, =
Tal Memorial 2011: 6-7th of 10, =
London 2011: 5-6th of 9, =
Bilbao 2012: 5th of 6, -1
London 2012, 5th of 9, = (one round left)

Also even scores in rated games in: Bundesliga 2012 and the Gelfand match 2012.

It is more than two years since Anand won a single game against an opponent rated higher than 2727.

That would be impressive results for a player like, say, van Wely.

SAVE us from Armageddon nonsense. Why not shared first??

Kramnik has played very well this tournament. But, when he might have tried for a win and perhaps tie for first, he chooses the Berlin, Adams chooses a harmless variation, and now the game is dead. Why not try for more? I think Kramnik needs some secondary openings to use when he wants/needs to win; but NOT the Pirc, please. This was also evident in the Candidate's! He is more than capable of playing sharply when required, he just needs to expand his repertoire to tale this into account.

And while I'm at it, why the widespread ignorance of 1.e4 e6 2. d3? This move has long been known and respected, used by many great players including Fischer and Smyslov. It is not second-rate by any means, just another approach.

Somebody got his pants back in Round 8: he uses a crown that doesn't fit.

Congratulations to you, old fighting tiger.
It made my day infinitely better...