GM Sergey Ionov annotates the games of the 8th round: Hello, dear chessfriends! In today's round the game Topalov-Shirov is developing very quickly. In a short time contenders made more than 20 moves. Only on the 23rd move Shirov has used the novelty 23... Rc7 (in the game Anand-Shirov was played 23... Bb8 and although Shirov won, the course of the game wasn't convenient for him). Soon after Topalov has won a pawn, but due to a poor position of his King (the weakness of dark squares could be fatal with the presence of opposite colours Bishops), he prefered to give it back to change Queens. Because of the mass exchanges contenders agreed to a draw. Of course the game Adams-Kramnik should be the most interesting today. After 11 moves one of the most popular positions of Scheveningen variation is on the board. Adams outplayed Kramnik in his usual unhurried style. It seemed Black had no problem after opening, but White skillfully manoeuvring, could throw back Black forces to the 8th horizontal. After Black lost a pawn only a miracle can save him. The miracle has not happened and soon after zeitnot Kramnik had to acknowledge his defeat. Very important victory for Adams to struggle for a win of the tournament. In the game of leader Anand with Bareev is played the variation of French defence, which occured between the same contenders in the tournament in Monaco 2003. Anand has used rare move 12.Neg5 (before that he played 12.c3, but he got nothing then from the opening). His vis-a-vis has fallen into a deep thinking, trying to get the sense of the agressive lunge of White. In the game meanwhile interesting events happen. White sacrificed a Knight and expelled black King from his refuge to the center. White leads an attack not hurrying and despite of sufficient defensive resourses of Black it will be difficult to parry White's attack in the conditions of shortage of time. Anand refused the triple repetition of moves and continues an attack. Computer offers the following possibility for Black on the 27th move - 27.... Qf4 28. Rg7 Kd6 29. Re6 Kd5 with advantage for Black, but I think there are not so many humans who would dare to play such a variation. White could to intensify his attack and despite of that Black could produce all 40 moves in time, one should not be envious of Black's position. The weakness of light squares and constraint of black pieces make the win of White the matter of time. Anand has won and continues to be the sole leader of the tournament. From the first moves the course of the game Sokolov-Svidler took an original way. Position after the 10th move did not appear in the tournament practice yet. First impression that Black should not have any problems with an equalization of play. Extremely tensive, despite of early Queens exchange, struggle happened in this game. Initiative of Black looked strong enough, they forced contender to refuse a castling and due to that White had some problems with coordination of his Rooks. But Sokolov has taken the sacrificed pawn and then he acted in cool blood. But probably there were the ways to strengthen Black's initiative. Bologan against Leko in the variation of Caro-Kann defence, in which Black suffered lately, has used interesting pawn sacrifice. On 19th move it was dangerous for White to take the Rook playing 19. Qh8 Kе7 20. Bg6 (the only move, for example 20. Qd4? Bf3 21.g3 Qh3 22.Qh4 Qh4 23.gh4 Rg8 with mate) Qg6 21. Qс3 Rg8 22.g3 Qе4 and White is pinned on the h1-a8 diagonal. After 19. Rfe1 Black solves his problems by Bf3. Bologan prefered 19... Rg8 to the natural move 19... Bf3. The forced variation following 19.Be4 determined a decisive advantage for White after 25.Nd4. In the game of outsiders Timman-Zhong a variation of Queens's Indian, where White due to his 2 Bishops has slightly better perspectives, was played. To avoid the move e2-e4, Zhong sacrificed his "a" pawn, then he advanced his "d" pawn and gained space in the center. Position became sharp, but in my opinion, compensation for the pawn is not enough. Zhong gained his 1st vistory. By impetuous march e6-e5-e4-e3 he splitted position of White. After that White lost coordination of pieces and could not resist to direct attack on his King. Akopian with Van Wely have played a quiet variation of Sicilian, in which White did not have any suficcient successes lately. Black did not hurry with a castling and after White's standart f4, he transfered his King to the Q-side. Skirmish in the center has lead to mass exchanges and the resourses to continue struggle became restricted.