By Armstrong Vas
Doha: Reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway emerged as the sole leader at the end of the eight round of the Qatar Masters Open Chess Championship at Aspire Zone in Doha on Monday.
On Monday, Carlsen defeated Mamedyarov Shakhriyar to brighten his chances of winning the championship.
The World No.1 had six and half points at the end of eight rounds, while last year’s winner, Yu Yangyi of China, and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, both have six points.
The last round of the nine-round championship will be held on Wednesday.
At joint third are 15 players including: Ngoc Truongson Nguyen, Ruslan Ponomariov, Zhong Zhang, Yinglun Xu, Dariusz Swiercz, Nikita Vitiugov,Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Pentala Harikrishna, Sanan Sjugirov,Sergey Karjakin,Vassily Ivanchuk,Ni Hua, Anish Giri and Vladimir Akopian.
The ninth round has some interesting pairing with Carslen taking on Kramnik.
The top ninth round pairing as are: Magnus Carlsen vs Vladimir Kramnik, Yu Yangyi vs So Wesley, Akopian Vladimir vs Giri Anish, Karjakin Sergey vs Zhang Zhong, Sjugirov Sanan vs Mamedyarov Shakhriyar, Harikrishna P vs Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Vitiugov Nikita vs Ganguly Surya Shekhar, Swiercz Dariusz vs Ivanchuk Vassily, Ponomariov Ruslan vs Xu Yinglun, Lin Chen vs Ni Hua.
More than 130 players are taking part in the $130,000 prize money championship.
The winner takes home $27,000.
The Qatar Masters Open is the strongest ever of its kind with 77 Grandmaster’s taking part. And it is for the first time that a reigning world champion, Carlsen, is competing in an open event since Boris Spassky did in Vancouver in 1971.
At last year’s championship, Giri and Kramnik won second and third place respectively.
The Championship is organised by the Qatar Chess Federation in association with Qatar Olympic Committee and sponsored by Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros. Co. WLL.
The Peninsula
