Who's on 1st?
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Who's on 1st?

The Carlsen crash is now showing those elusive green shoots of recovery, as the aura of invincibility that made the Norwegian, at 19, the youngest ever world No1 with an all-time rating second only to Garry Kasparov, returned with vengeance.

Magnus has now moved effortlessly into the sole lead on 2.5/3 following an easy win over China's Wang Yue in a decisive round 3 of the Pearl Spring Masters in Nanjing. But hot on the teenager's tail though lurks World Champion Vishy Anand, who moved to a half point behind the leader after a deja vu win over Veselin Topalov.

Both are now in a neck and neck race to claim the world No1 spot, with just tenths of a point separating the two top names in the game on the unofficial live rating list - and with Levon Aronian on fire for his team Mikka Yerevanin the European Club Cup on 3/3, he's also just a couple of points adrift of both, and there's a likely scenario playing out that we could see, for the first time in history, three players with published ratings above 2800 on the same official Fide list.

Anand's win with the Lasker Defence over Topalov was all but a mirror image of the final game of their World Championship match from earlier this year, as - yet again - the hapless Bulgarian's king got unceremoniously dragged to h4 in around 30 moves. As GM Var Akobian commented during our wee small hours live coverage: "It doesn't take a genius to workout that something has to be seriously wrong with Topalov's game-plan for this to happen twice in a Lasker Defence." Go check Var Akobian's expert take on it all in his GOTD selection below.

And speaking of commentators, GM Yasser Seirawan makes his debut here on Chess.FM on Saturday! And for a double whammy, Yasser will be joined in the Chess.FM commentary booth by none other than GM Joel Benjamin to make this one live show you dare not miss! To listen to GMs Yasser Seirawan and Joel Benjamin on Saturday, join ICC now to catch all the live Chess.FM action from Nanjing (plus upcoming Tal Memorial and London Chess Classic) by clicking here!

Rounds 1-9 start at 2:30 PM local time (2:30 AM ICC / 11:30 PM Pacific daylight / 8:30 AM CET), and round 10 at 10 AM local time (10 PM ICC / 7 PM Pacific daylight / 4 AM CET)

Rest day: October 25th (after round 5).

Official site: http://www.chess-pearlspring.com/www/chess_pk/2009/en/

Game of the Day

Rd	Date	Commentator	Game	WATCH	FREE
1	Wed, 20 Oct	GM Alex Yermolinsky	GM Magnus Carlsen vs. GM Etienne Bacrot
2	Thurs, 21 Oct	GM Ronen Har-Zvi	GM Wang Yue vs. GM Vugar Gashimov
3	Fri, 22 Oct	GM Varuzhan Akobian	GM Veselin Topalov vs. GM Vishy Anand

Standings

N	Name	FED	FIDE	1		2		3		4		4		5
1	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2826			½	.	1	.	1	.	.	.	.	.	2½	3022
2	Anand, Viswanathan	IND	2800	½	.			.	.	½	.	1	.	.	.	2	2912
3	Bacrot, Etienne	FRA	2716	0	.	.	.			.	.	½	.	1	.	1½	2782
4	Wang Yue	CHN	2732	0	.	½	.	.	.			.	.	½	.	1	2656
5	Topalov, Veselin	BUL	2803	.	.	0	.	½	.	.	.			½	.	1	2620
6	Gashimov, Vugar	AZE	2719	.	.	.	.	0	.	½	.	½	.			1	2625

Schedule

Rd	Date	Host	Commentator
1	10/20	GM Ronen Har-Zvi	GM Alex Yermolinsky
2	10/21	GM Ronen Har-Zvi	GM Alex Yermolinsky
3	10/22	GM Ronen Har-Zvi	GM Varuzhan Akobian
4	10/23	GM Joel Benjamin	GM Yasser Seirawan
5	10/24	GM Ronen Har-Zvi	GM Varuzhan Akobian
6	10/26	Mig	GM Larry Christiansen
7	10/27	Mig	GM David Smerdon
8	10/28	tba	GM Jon Speelman
9	10/29	tba	tba
10	10/30	tba	tba

ICC SOS Charity Simul

In the past, ICC has readily made its services and spirited community open to aid charity simuls, most notably by elite superstars such as World Champion Vishy Anand and world #1 Magnus Carlsen. Recently though, our community was shocked of hearing of the terrible plight of Ukrainian WIM Galina Shliahtich, whose health has recently worsened due to multiple sclerosis and tuberculosis.

And this coming weekend of Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th October, two of ICC's most active Ukrainian Grandmasters, Yuri Vovk (Imperator15) and Valeriy Aveskulov (Prokuror), along with Argentinian IM Alejo de Dovitiis (dedo2) will be generously giving of their time by holding fund raising events on ICC to help contribute to Galina's mounting medical costs.

Participation in either simul or Play the Master events requires a donation of at least 20 chekels, but any donation would be greatly appreciated, even if you do not plan to participate. For the schedule and information on how to contribute to the fund, please take the time to visit our charity fund page now at http://www.chessclub.com/groups/ShliahtichFund.

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