To me, Topalov's victory comes as something of a surprise. I stopped watching the game after move 45 and was pretty sure Black must be better due to the dangerous Q+N combination and his more advanced kingside passed pawns. Was White really (slightly) better in that endgame? Amazing.

@Arne, the more the passed pawns move, the more the Black king is exposed to checks and loss of the 'passed pawns' anyway. Black is the one fighting for a draw at this point. Very tough for a human, but perhaps easy for comp.
Grischuk's mistakes was much earlier.

I miss Carlsen :(

topalov has balls.i'm tired to watch chickens.carlsen is one of them.too much propaganda with this kid.

@ Castro, players who lack ballz, will tend to miss chances....''always''
Topalov has ballz made of crystal Diamonds! hence seizes his chances more than most.

Prior to the computer era players like Shirov, Topalov, Moro etc where seen to be creative complex players (To me they still are and forever will be) but now in computer age, which seems to make even the most complex position simplistically clear, patzers seem to feel they have some sort of authority to judge the strength of these Great players.

Without comps it will take the average patzer an eternity to analyse and evaluate these positions Topalov tends to create accurately.
What amateurs need to learn is to appreciate the character of the fight from a human perspective.

Turn the comp of! And use thy Brain!!!

@Peter Doggers,
Thank you for the information. I hope I did not annoy you or upset you with my comment. I was just wondering. Enjoy your trip to Spain!

Seeya pal!

Sasha's time trouble was decisive. But kudos to Topalov for playing such chess just before his Arpil match.

It seems any tournament without Carlsen and Kramnik is less exciting these days...

Anish Giri does a brilliant job annotating selected games from the rounds, over at Chessbase.

http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6140

topa is close to take over Carlsen's nr 1 position in the live-rating list!

Yes, and with only five games. Lucky for him that Grischuk didn't see Kh7 and Qg3, because of time pressure.

Arne, the knight isn't very dangerous in such positions, unless you meant it in a negative way. The bishop and a potential free a-pawn are certainly more useful and dangerous. A draw is most likely though.

free = passed...sorry

29. Qc1! was winning. With just 5 games (not only) he gained 6 ELO points.

I suppose you're right, Clearbrook. Black's main problem seems to be his vulnerable king, which Queen and Bishop can exploit nicely. Still, optically I'd evaluate Black's chances higher, due to the passed pawns. After all, the a-pawn is a potential passer, but Black's g- and h-pawns already are!

I also wondered whether Peter Doggers' 45.Ka2 += was a bit "annotating by the result", but besides king safety it may also be relevant that the black pawn on b7 - while constraining white's queenside pawns - is a target for the white pieces. As a result, white could nicely centralize his queen on move 49 and the black kingside passed pawns couldn't advance after all. I guess black would have had better chances of survival, or even advantage, against a dark-squared white bishop (that cannot attack b7)?

Watching live, I was already woorying for black on move 45 - taking clock times and Grischuk's imminent second time rouble into account ... .

@Nemozyne: Thanks for letting us know! :D

I miss Carlsen being #1. :(

It's "official":

Live ratings - updated February 19, 2010
Rank Name Rating Change Games
01 Topalov 2814,7 +9,7 6
02 Carlsen 2812,9 +2,9 13

He's still an amazing player. Still one one my favourites!

I miss Fischer! ;-)

@Arne
"To me, Topalov’s victory comes as something of a surprise. I stopped watching the game after move 45 and was pretty sure Black must be better due to the dangerous Q+N combination and his more advanced kingside passed pawns"

I thought exactlly that, at first. Then I tended to believe in a dynamic draw (like a perpetual), but before I was really sure of anything Topalov won :-)

* That is, before I was really sure, Topalov got a clear won game with 53. Qf4! At that moment I was trying to calculate if white would be better with the bombastic 53.Bxg4 Qg2+ 54. Ka3 Qxg4 55. Qxb7+ . I still don't know. What do you think?
But Veselin found a nice and easy alternative...

amazing performance by Topalov ... not because of the quality of chess (not that I understand but GMs says so :D), but purely on playing against the opponent's weak sports. Smth like Tal, his sacrifices were not always sound but they worked ... same thing now, Topa played very smart. Against a computer he would not have a change but against another player it works as we see.
He won the match against Kamsky with a similar fashion. In one interview Anand says that Topalov won purely on confidence

That can be said about all the great players. People like to mention Carlsen, but he is like that too. Topalov seems to risk more than Magnus, that's true, but what would happen to his performances if the opponents were to take their (many) chances?

Chessvibes is usally the first chess web page to report on tournaments.
How come the reports on Linares are being posted whit a one day delay?

P.S. Linares has been a bit boring this year.

I have to agree with someone'selse comment on Topalov: the man has some very big balls! He is a far better version of Morozevich in that he creates unusual material imbalances in most of his games against top opposition AND is able to score points (Moro is able of doing the former but not the latter). His match against Anand is going to be a great chess event. Sure most of Topa's games contain a number of refutations if you run them thru a chess engine but that is precisely the point: he is playing against human beings not chess engines. Topa is the modern version of another brilliante attacking player: Mikhail Tahl. Go Topa go!

* Some misunderstandings could be avoid, if I wrote properlly.
In my post, "his performances" is to be understood as "Carlsen's performances" (not Topalov's).
Anyway, it can be said of both. Maybe it's just the "style" which differs (and from the two, Veselin's is indeed my choice too).
Moro can score lots of points against anyone, he just isn't on a good wave, these days...

@ Mauricio These reports are done together with Rick Goetzee while I'm in fact on a short trip to the US at the moment, so it takes a bit longer to get them online. The good thing is that Rick arrived in Linares today so in the next report (which I'm about to publish) we'll have more photos. Besides, I will be in Linares myself for the last two rounds and the closing.