Topalov Wins Pearl Spring With One Round to Spare

It's another incredible performance for Veselin Topalov, who defeated Peter Svidler today with the Black pieces to clinch victory in Nanjing. His 6.5/9 score puts him 1.5 ahead of Bu and Aronian with just one round to play, meaning he'll be the outright winner regardless of what happens tomorrow.

Topalov has White tomorrow against Sergei Movsesian, with a chance to finish off an undefeated tournament and likely finish the event with a rating over 2800. Here's his win today against Svidler:

White: Peter Svidler
Black: Veselin Topalov
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 c5 6.Be3 Nd7 7.Nbd2 c4 8.a4 h6 9.b3 cxb3 10.Nxb3 Rc8 11.Ra2 Qc7 12.Bd3 Bxd3 13.Qxd3 Ne7 14.0-0 Qc4 15.Rb1 b6 16.Qf1 Nc6 17.c3 Qxc3 18.a5 Be7 19.axb6 axb6 20.Qd1 Qc4 21.Nc1 Nb4 22.Ra7 Qc2 23.Qxc2 Nxc2 24.Bd2 Na3 25.Ra1 Nc4 26.Rb7 Nb8 27.Ra8 0-0 28.Raxb8 Nxd2 29.Rxc8 Nxf3+ 30.gxf3 Rxc8 31.Ne2 Bd8. 32.f4 g6 33.Kg2 Kf8 34.Kf3 Ra8 35.Ke3 Ra3+ 36.Kd2 Bh4 0-1