Topalov Topples Carlsen In Grand Slam Final

Veselin Topalov humbled Magnus Carlsen in the only decisive game in round 3 of the Grand Slam Final to replace him at the top of the leaderboard. Carlsen responded to Topalov's novelty 14...a6 with the pawn sac 15.b4.

The sacrifice seemed sound, but Carlsen's follow up was inaccurate and Topalov was able to keep the pawn and neutralise any compensation. After that Carlsen wriggled as hard as possible, but Topalov was not going to be denied the spoils against his young opponent.

Lev Aronian tried a positional exchange sacrifice against Anand and seemed to have an edge in the ending, but Anand managed to hold the draw.

Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk played a lively opening - albeit known QGA theory - but reached a repetition after 35 moves.

The standings after round 3 (note the scoring system, Win=3 points, Draw=1, Loss=0)

1	Topalov, Veselin	2777	*	*	1	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	5
2	Carlsen, Magnus	2775	0	.	*	*	.	.	½	.	.	.	1	.	4
3	Radjabov, Teimour	2744	½	.	.	.	*	*	½	.	½	.	.	.	3
4	Ivanchuk, Vassily	2781	.	.	½	.	½	.	*	*	½	.	.	.	3
5	Anand, Viswanathan	2798	.	.	.	.	½	.	½	.	*	*	½	.	3
6	Aronian, Levon	2737	½	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	*	2