The Week in Chess

Viswanathan Anand beat Vladimir Kramnik in Round 7 of the Tata Steel Masters to join Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren, Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen in a five way tie on 4.5/7. Kramnik has been playing some rather strange, if not outright bad, chess during this event. Kramnik's aggressive 14.g4?! and 16.h4? should have led to a quick loss but Anand chose to take Queens off and go into a levelish endgame but then he proceeded to outplay Kramnik again and forced the win of material just after move 40.

The other leaders drew. Anish Giri and Ding Liren drew a dynamic Catalan where pieces were traded off until a draw was agreed on move 29. Magnus Carlsen was a pawn down against Vladimir Fedoseev in a double rook endgame and was forced to work very hard for his draw. Ian Nepomniachtchi got a little something against Jan Krzysztof Duda in a Petroff (Exchange French structure) but the drawish nature of the position came through in the end.

Teimour Radjabov beat Santosh Gujrathi Vidit in a sharp Ragozin where the tactics went his way in a wild position. 8...Bd6 was perhaps imprecise and instead of 13...e5 Black could have played 13...b5 but it was after 16...dxc3 (16...Bf4!) that black was actually lost. Sam Shankland won a pawn against Jorden Van Foreest on the run up to first time control and in a knight and pawn endgame this was enough. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov against Richard Rapport was a lively draw.

Round 8 - Sunday 20th Jan 12:30GMT Carlsen-Rapport, Anand-Mamedyarov, Duda-Kramnik, Ding-Nepomniachtchi, Vidit-Giri, Van Foreest-Radjabov, Fedoseev-Shankland,

Round 7 Standings: 1 Nepomniachtchi 4.5pts, 2 Ding 4.5pts, 3 Giri 4.5pts, 4 Carlsen 4.5pts, 5 Anand 4.5pts, 6 Radjabov 4pts, 7 Vidit 3.5pts, 8 Shankland 3.5pts, 9 Mamedyarov 3pts, 10 Duda 3pts, 11 Rapport 3pts, 12 Fedoseev 2.5pts, 13 Kramnik 2pts, 14 Van Foreest 2pts.