PoPChess

Are you ready to achieve some win-win? The 2nd Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament starts on the 27th. We finally get to see world #1 Topalov at the board. Carlsen, Radjabov, Leko, Jakovenko, and Wang Yue complete the cast of this double round-robin. Topalov dominated this event last year. Because he bailed out of the Bilbao Masters Final last month, we haven’t seen Topalov in action since he tied for 2-3 at the MTel Masters back in May. As for Leko, we haven’t seen him in action since 1996! Ha ha, I kill me.

To make amends I’ll use that inexcusable and inaccurate cheap shot to point out that Leko has been playing both aggressively and very well of late. So don’t all you Topalov and Carlsen fans trample each other picking your man to coast to victory. Speaking of trampling, littlefish and the other denizens of the deep in the message boards have the usual prognostication pool going on the results. No live radio for me this time since I think the games start at 3am NY time. Pass.