In Friday's Blindfold games there were four White wins.
One of these was Carlsen's win over Gelfand and another, more surprising, was Smeets's over Kramnik.
Carlsen had again caught Ivanchuk (who drew) in the battle for first place in the overall standings. However it seems that Carlsen is the king of Blindfold chess with a full point more than his closest rival.
Vassily Ivanchuk (3.5) | UKR | 2748 | 0.5-0.5 | Ruslan Ponomariov (2.5) | UKR | 2748 |
Peter Svidler (2.5) | RUS | 2750 | 0-1 | Alexander Grischuk (3.5) | RUS | 2756 |
Sergey Karjakin (2.5) | RUS | 2725 | 1-0 | Leinier Dominguez Perez (0.5) | CUB | 2713 |
Levon Aronian (1.5) | ARM | 2782 | 1-0 | Vugar Gashimov (2.5) | AZE | 2740 |
Jan Smeets (1) | NED | 2651 | 1-0 | Vladimir Kramnik (2.5) | RUS | 2790 |
Magnus Carlsen (4) | NOR | 2813 | 1-0 | Boris Gelfand (3.5) | ISR | 2750 |
In the day's rapid games, Karjakin won with Black against the hapless Dominguez who is out of sorts and stuck firmly at the bottom of the table.
Ivanchuk drew again against his compatriot, and thus adds 0.5 to his rapid total, but with Kramnik winning he is no longer in the sole lead in rapidplay.
Alexander Grischuk (2) | RUS | 2756 | 0.5-0.5 | Peter Svidler (3) | RUS | 2750 |
Ruslan Ponomariov (2) | UKR | 2748 | 0.5-0.5 | Vassily Ivanchuk (4) | UKR | 2748 |
Leinier Dominguez Perez (1.5) | CUB | 2713 | 0-1 | Sergey Karjakin (2) | RUS | 2725 |
Vugar Gashimov (2.5) | AZE | 2740 | 0.5-0.5 | Levon Aronian (2) | ARM | 2782 |
Vladimir Kramnik (3.5) | RUS | 2790 | 1-0 | Jan Smeets (1) | NED | 2651 |
Boris Gelfand (3.5) | ISR | 2750 | 0-1 | Magnus Carlsen (3) | NOR | 2813 |
By winning both games, Carlsen outpaced Ivanchuk and now has the overall lead.
The battle for third place is hotting up with three players on 7/12.
Aronian is well down the field in tenth after finishing first in the previous two editions.
Ranking | Seed | Name | Country | Rating | Rapidplay Total | Blindfold Total | Overall Total |
1 | 1 | Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 2813 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
2 | 7 | Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | 2748 | 4.5 | 4 | 8.5 |
3= | 2 | Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | 2790 | 4.5 | 2.5 | 7 |
3= | 4 | Alexander Grischuk | RUS | 2756 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 7 |
3= | 6 | Boris Gelfand | ISR | 2750 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 7 |
6 | 10 | Sergey Karjakin | RUS | 2725 | 3 | 3.5 | 6.5 |
7 | 5 | Peter Svidler | RUS | 2750 | 3.5 | 2.5 | 6 |
8= | 9 | Ruslan Ponomariov | UKR | 2748 | 2.5 | 3 | 5.5 |
8= | 8 | Vugar Gashimov | AZE | 2740 | 3 | 2.5 | 5.5 |
10 | 3 | Levon Aronian | ARM | 2782 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 5 |
12 | 12 | Jan Smeets | NED | 2651 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
11 | 11 | Leinier Dominguez Perez | CUB | 2713 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 2 |
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