Contenders line up to take on victor of Vishy Anand v Magnus Carlsen

3315: White mates in two moves (by Frederick Gamage). Several near-misses, but just one precise first move solves the problem. Photograph: Graphic

Even the loser of a world championship match is likely to become a millionaire, so a shot at the title is the ultimate jackpot for the grandmaster elite. Norway's Magnus Carlsen will challenge for Vishy Anand's crown at Chennai in November but for the rest of the top 10 the target is now the eight-player 2014 candidates match which will decide the following contender.

The loser of Anand v Carlsen gets a place, so do Levon Aronian and Vlad Kramnik due to their high ratings. There will be a wild card for the candidates organiser. Two places go to the winners of next month's World Cup at Tromso, in Norway, a 128-player knockout decided by unpredictable two-game mini-matches.

Hence the importance of the six-event Grand Prix which qualifies two candidates and concluded its fifth leg in Beijing this week. Veselin Topalov, who won the Swiss GP and shared first in London, tied third in China, sufficient to secure him first place overall on 410 GP points whatever happens in the sixth and final event in Paris in September.

The remaining GP place looked unclear until Shak Mamedyarov unleashed a closing sprint of three straight wins to secure first place in Beijing. However, the combative Azeri can still be passed if either Italy's world No3, Fabiano Caruana, or Russia's world No4, Alex Grischuk, wins outright in Paris.

At first sight these overall GP results look good for Carlsen, if he is looking beyond Anand to his first title challenger. The dangerous rivals for the Norwegian in the next few years are Caruana, 20, and Russia's Sergei Karjakin, 23, who failed to make his mark in the Grand Prix.

There could still be a late twist, though. Caruana on his best form is well capable of winning Paris while the current belief is that the next candidates will be played in Russia, which means Karjakin might receive the wild card.

Mamedyarov's win below was a lesson in the dangers of pawn snatching. He was pressing earlier but Topalov countered actively until the miscalculation 20..Ne4? when Nf5 21 Qf3 Rae8 would be level. Black resigned early but after 24...Nxa2 25 Qxa2 Qf5 26 Qc3 Qd5 27 Re5 White consolidates and Black will lose his Q-side pawns.

S Mamedyarov v V Topalov

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qc2 O-O 5 Nf3 c5 6 dxc5 Na6 7 g3 Nxc5 8 Bg2 Nce4 9 O-O Bxc3 10 bxc3 d5 11 Ng5 Nd6 12 cxd5 exd5 13 Rd1 Bf5 14 Qb3 h6 15 Nh3 Bxh3 16 Bxh3 Re8 17 Bg2 Rxe2 18 Bxd5 Nxd5 19 Qxd5 Qf6 20 Bf4 Ne4? 21 Qd3! Nxc3 22 Rac1! Nxd1 23 Qxe2 Nc3 24 Qc4 1-0

3315 1 Rf4! and mate by 2 Rc8, 2 Rf7, 2 Rc6 or 2 Rh4 according to Black's reply.