After eight rounds, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, the top seed, holds a one point lead in the annual Ciudad de Linares chess tournament in Spain. Alexander Grischuk of Russia, the defending champion, is in second place after beating Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan in Round 8 on Sunday. Levon Aronian of Armenia is in third, having managed, like Topalov, not to have lost a game in the chess tournament. Unlike Topalov, who has won three games, Aronian has not won a game either. So far, 25 percent of the games have been decisive, but that does not mean that the other 75 percent have been dull. Quite the contrary. The games have mostly been hard fought and exciting, even ...

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