U.S. Championship: a6 Slav

Ben more than holds his own in an a6 Slav. In fact, after move 26, he's probably turned the game around, but it goes downhill thereafter through a series of inaccuacies. What went wrong?

World Championship: Slav Holds Again in Round 5 (Anand 3 : Topalov 2)

Compare White's 16th below to that of White's 16th in Round 3.

Looking forward to Round 8 (Anand has White in both Rounds 6 and 7), who, if either player, will abandon the Slav debate? If Anand won't, Topalov should. He hasn't generated the types of positions in which he's best.

World Championship: The Match Settles Down in Round 3 (Anand 1 1/2 : Topalov 1 1/2)

The players land in a less than volatile variation of the Slav proper. The novelty is Anand's 14...Rg8, but the move is known in this line (just not so early in the position). Topalov's invocation of the Sofia Rule does inject a bit of drama into all the games.

Gibtelcom Results: Lenderman the Fighter

As the first prize at Gibraltar cannot be shared, there was a four-player playoff among Adams, Gustafsson, Sandipan, and Vallejo Pons. Adams defeated Gustaffson in one semi-final, and Vallejo Pons won the other. Adams then defeated Vallejo Pons to take first. Kamsky and Lenderman also tied with 7.5 after the 10 rounds, but missed out on the playoff on tiebreaks. Lenderman gets the fighter's award. Of the 90 games played by those tied for first, only three games were lost, and two of those were by Lenderman. That says just as much, of course, about his number of wins. Had the tiebreak system rewarded victories as we see in some tournaments, Lenderman would have won the event. See his final round win below.

Rank	Name	Flags	Score	Fed.	M/F	Rating	TPR	W-We	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	GM Gustafsson, Jan		7.5	GER	M	2627	2769	+1.88	1	1	1	½	1	½	½	1	½	½
2	GM Adams, Michael		7.5	ENG	M	2694	2764	+0.97	1	1	1	½	1	½	½	½	1	½
3	GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco		7.5	ESP	M	2705	2726	+0.33	1	1	½	½	½	1	1	½	1	½
4	GM Sandipan, Chanda		7.5	IND	M	2622	2720	+1.29	1	1	½	1	½	1	½	½	½	1
5	GM Kamsky, Gata		7.5	USA	M	2693	2719	+0.38	1	1	½	½	1	½	1	½	½	1
6	GM Bacrot, Etienne		7.5	FRA	M	2713	2713	+0.11	½	1	1	1	½	½	½	1	½	1
7	GM Movsesian, Sergei		7.5	SVK	M	2708	2708	+0.07	1	½	1	½	1	½	1	½	1	½
8	GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal		7.5	IND	M	2584	2656	+0.95	1	1	½	1	0	1	½	½	1	1
9	IM Lenderman, Alex		7.5	USA	M	2560	2652	+1.33	1	0	1	1	1	½	1	0	1	1

Kamsky drops Zhou Weiqi with Chebanenko

Kamsky wins with the a6 Slav after Zhou Weiqi (Joe Way-Chee) loses his way on the edge of the draw. As defending champion, Kamsky has proven himself tough in these mini-matches.