The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen has a 1 point lead over the field going into his game against Wesley So in the eighth round Gashimov Memorial after defeating Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik suffered his third loss in a row, as far as anyone can tell the first time this has happened to him in a classical event. Kramnik was clearly upset with himself more than anything else as he saw the near equalising move of 19...Bb7 but played the more complicated 19..Bc7 instead which doesn't seem to work. Carlsen won a queen for rook and bishop and whilst it took some technique the position must be winning for him.

Fabiano Caruana also didn't have too much out of the opening according to his post-mortem with Wesley So. The position was a bit awkward but both players agreed So's real trouble came when he misplaced the knight with 23.Ng6 after which he was unable to save the game.

Viswanathan Anand moved into second place above So after defeating Michael Adams in a complex game where he gave up the exchange for bishop and pawn. It seemed harder for Adams to play and Anand gradually took over and won the game.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had a much better position against Rauf Mamedov according to the computer (21.Rxe4!) but gradually allowed his opponent to equalise. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri drew.

Round 7 Standings: Carlsen 5.5pts/7, Anand 4.5pts, Caruana, So 4pts, Mamedyarov 3.5pts, Giri, Vachier-Lagrave, Mamedov 3pts, Kramnik 2.5pts, Adams 2pts.

Round 8 pairings 11am BST Saturday 24th April 2015: Adams-Giri, Kramnik-Vachier-Lagrave, So-Carlsen, Mamedov-Caruana, Anand-Mamedyarov.