In the (highy unpredictable) Grand Prix in Tashkent the leaderboard has changed considerably again in the penultimate round. In Monday's top encounter, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov beat tournament leader Sergei Karjakin and the Azerbaijani is now leading together with... yes, Alexander Morozevich again, who defeated Peter Leko.

In the top game of the round, Mamedyarov won against Karjakin | Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich & Giyanov Bakhtiyor, courtesy of FIDE

The chess fans have been spoilt with wonderful chess over the last few days, and that includes the Tashkent Grand Prix games. A great 10th round led to a new situation in the standings again: Mamedyarov and Morozevich are tied for first with plus two, and five players follow with plus one. Svidler and Leko are on 50% while only Gelfand, Kamsky and Dominguez are having a really disappointing event.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who won the first Grand Prix in London together with Veselin Topalov and Boris Gelfand, is playing really inspiring chess these days. On Monday he came up with strong preparation and followed it up with aggressive chess, not shying away from yet another exchange sacrifice. It seems that only just before the time control Karjakin made the decisive mistake.

PGN string

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Alexander Morozevich played the kind of game every amateur dreams of: just point queen, rook and bishop to the opponent's king and get a winning position! That's what happened, basically. Because there were some threats against the white king Leko played on a queen down, but it was always lost.

PGN string

Alexander Morozevich

There was even a third winner: Ruslan Ponomariov. The Ukrainian played the good old Closed Sicilian against Leinier Dominguez and found some really powerful moves in the middlegame.

PGN string

Rustam Kasimdzhanov is playing good, solid chess in his native country and so also Fabiano Caruana couldn't get more than a draw.

PGN string

Wang Hao used a nice trick to equalize his game against Boris Gelfand completely.

PGN string

Gata Kamsky played a temporary pawn sacrifice to reach an ending and having the bishop pair. To win it back, he had to give one of the two bishops and what resulted was a drawn position.

PGN string

FIDE Grand Prix Tashkent 2012 | Schedule & results

FIDE Grand Prix Tashkent 2012 | Round 10 standings