Linares, March 2: The scene shifts to Linares as Viswanathan Anand, the joint leader takes on Veselin Topalov in the eighth round of the Morelia-Linares chess tournament. Anand, who shared the lead with Magnus Carlsen at 4.5 points after seven rounds, has white pieces against the Bulgaria.

The other leader, Carlsen will have black pieces against Alexander Morozevich.
The other pairings are Peter Leko versus Vassily Ivanchuk and Lev Aronian versus Peter Svidler.

Anand and Topalov drew their clash in Morelia and earlier this year in Corus Grandmasters chess, Anand lost to Topalov. Overall Anand has 20 wins to Topalov’s 13 and there have 39 draws.

The eight-player tournament is being played in two legs with the first seven rounds in Morelia, Mexico and the next seven in Linares, Spain.

In the seventh and last round at Morelia, the NIIT-sponsored Anand beat Peter Leko with black pieces to get into shares lead.

Standings after Round 7: 1. Anand and Carlsen 4.5; 3. Ivanchuk 4.0; 4. Aronian and Svidler 3.5; 6. Leko and Topalov 3.0; 8. Morozevich 2.0