Not literally everybody, but a five-way tie at the top, with two more players half a point behind, makes for quite the logjam.
Critical to making this happen was Vidit Gujrathi’s win against Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Abdusattorov started the round half a point ahead of Dommaraju Gukesh and a point ahead of Vidit, Anish Giri, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, and Wei Yi; but finished it tied with all of them but Pragg.
Starting with Vidit vs. Abdusattorov: Vidit found a funny idea against the Nimzo-Indian that looked positionally suspect. This appearance was the point: Abdusattorov played to exploit it, which was a mistake, and he was clearly worse to lost for a long time. His 46…Kf8 was the fatal error: once White was able to safely embed a pawn on g6 Black’s king was permanently incarcerated, and while Abdusattorov defended resiliently the win was only a matter of time.
Gukesh could have finished the round in clear first, but his shocking failure to recognize that he fell into a threefold repetition - in a *completely* winning position - allowed Praggnanandhaa to escape with an unearned draw.
Giri hadn’t won a game since round 4, but Jorden Van Foreest’s 21.Qc3?? turned an equal, drawish position into one that was immediately lost. Losing a piece, Van Foreest resigned after Giri’s 24th move.
While Giri started the event with 3.5/4, Wei Yi has scored 3.5 out of his last four games, included his win in this round against Ju Wenjun. With Black, Wei Yi took some chances in the opening that paid off: after 12 moves he had equalized and - more importantly - produced an entirely nonstandard position that his lower-rated opponent couldn’t dry up. The chances remained level for a while, but errors on moves 21 and 22 sunk the women’s world champion. Wei Yi confidently converted his advantage, and joined the tie for first.
Alireza Firouzja joined Praggnanandhaa half a point behind the leaders with his win over Ian Nepomniachtchi. In a sharp Jobava-Prie system with castling on opposite flanks Firouzja soon had Nepo on the ropes, and after Nepo’s 18…Be5? he stayed there. Black’s last move, 27…Rf8, was a blunder that merely expedited a loss that was already a virtual certainty.
Two games played no role in the race for first, but it doesn’t mean that the players didn’t fight as if their games were the most important ones in the tournament. Ding Liren enjoyed a rare bright spot in the tournament, grinding out a win with Black against poor Max Warmerdam, who has now lost four in a row and scored just half a point in his last six games. Parham Maghsoodloo also did his best to grind out a win with Black against Alexander Donchenko, but couldn’t quite pull it off.
The games, with my comments (at least to the first five games discussed above), are here. And here are the pairings for what will hopefully be a thrilling final round [Note: any players tied for first will be in the playoff; it won’t be limited to the top two on tiebreaks]:
Ding Liren (5.5) - Ju Wenjun (4)
Maghsoodloo (4.5) - Gukesh (7.5)
Wei Yi (7.5) - Vidit (7.5)
Abdusattorov (7.5) - Donchenko (4.5)
Giri (7.5) - Warmerdam (4)
Praggnanandhaa (7) - Firouzja (7)
Nepomniachtchi (6) - Van Foreest (4)
Looks like a Giri-Abdusattorov playoff to me; we’ll see. By the way, for those who want to watch the final round live, remember that it starts two hours earlier than usual.