The Week in Chess

Fabiano Caruana survived what looked like a last throw of the dice from Levon Aronian and picked up a win in Round 7 and lead at the half way stage of the FIDE Candidates in Berlin.

Aronian found an interesting pawn sacrifice that hadn't been checked by Caruana in a position where he thought he'd looked at everything. Aronian got quite a lot of practical compensation but the computer assessments tellingly never were better for him and were occasionally dire. Aronian had a final chance to draw with 32.Qh4 after his 32.Bc4? in spite of time trouble Caruana brought home the full point.

Sergey Karjakin and Wesley So seemed to be heading for a draw as they entered a Rook, Knight and Pawn endgame with all the pawns on the Kingside. But So drifted into difficulties (the active defence 26..Rb6 was suggested by Karjakin afterwards) but he was still in the game until 35...Ke8? (35...Rc7! draws) after which Karjakin was winning, So lost on time.

Alexander Grischuk had no option but to take a draw by repetition on move 16 in his game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a Ragozin Defence.

Ding Liren equalised quickly against Vladimir Kramnik's English. 21...Bf5 seemed especially promising but also 27...Bd7. Once Kramnik equalised on move 30 he decided to play on and on as the only one with any theoretical chances. In fact the game remained balanced until the draw was agreed on move 74.

Round 7 Standings: 1st Caruana 5pts, 2nd Mamedyarov 4.5pts, 3rd Kramnik 3.5pts, 4th Ding Liren 3.5pts, 5th Grischuk 3.5pts, 6th Karjakin 3pts, 7th Wesley So 2.5pts, 8th Aronian 2.5pts

Round 8 pairings Monday 18th March 2018 2pm GMT: Grischuk-Kramnik, Mamedyarov-Karjakin, Ding Liren-Aronian, Wesley So-Caruana