2019 Gibraltar, Round 9: Artemiev Again the Sole Leader, Entering the Final Round

With a good result tomorrow, Vladislav Artemiev will produce the greatest achievement of his young life. (He's 20.) With one round to go, Artemiev is the solo leader of the Gibraltar Masters, reaching 7.5/9 (and a 2905 TPR!), good for a half point gap over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Yu Yangyi, and dark horse Murali Karthikeyan.

Entering round 9, he shared the lead with David Navara and Kirill Alekseenko. Navara was his victim, and Alekseenko lost to Vachier-Lagrave. Starting (and finishing) the round half a point behind, Yu beat Le Quang Liem while Karthikeyan defeated Maxim Matlakov. Among the favorites who were also in that second score group, but who failed to keep pace, were Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura. The top players may be near the top, but it doesn't mean that they're going to win.

Before getting to the last-round pairings, some brief comments about ratings. Artemiev has gained 21.6 rating points, flying up 11 spots into a virtual tie with fellow 20-year-old Jan-Krzysztof Duda at 2731 (once it's rounded up). They're not quite the top players unable to legally drink booze in the U.S., as 19-year-old Wei Yi is one glorious rating point above them. But they're close! And Yu Yangyi is on the verge of following Ding Liren as the second Chinese player in the top 10. The two top teams from the last Olympiad are in a good fight: the U.S. has the #2, 12, 16, and 26 spots, and Leinier Dominguez will be #19 once he plays again and his rating is reactivated. China has the #3, 11, 21, 23, and 33 spots. Once Mr. G.K.K. comes to his senses, gets U.S. citizenship and unretires, we'll be the favorites again. C'mon, Garry; do the right thing.

Anyway, let's get to the last round pairings for Gibraltar:

• Yu (7) - Artemiev (7.5)
• Karthikeyan (7) - Vachier-Lagrave (7)

The 6.5-pointers are mathematically ruled out of winning the event (at least as long as there isn't a double forfeit on board 1), but for information's sake here are their pairings, too:

• Aronian (6.5) - Howell (6.5)
• Nakamura (6.5) - Grandelius (6.5)
• Navara (6.5) - Melkumyan (6.5)
• Vitiugov (6.5) - Vaibhav (6.5)
• Alekseenko (6.5) - Adams (6.5)
• Lalith (6.5) - Saric (6.5)
• Naiditsch (6) - Anton (6.5)