The Week in Chess

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won his third game in a row beating Wei Yi in the 7th round of the 80th Tata Steel Masters. Mamedyarov grabbed a pawn in a Catalan but Wei Yi as black had sufficient compensation. However Wei Yi's 19...Rfc8 (19...g5 safeguarding the bishop was needed) was an error after which he was just a pawn down for nothing and lost quickly.

Vladimir Kramnik beat Viswanathan Anand in a smooth easy performance that left the winner surprised. 10.h3? was already an error probably overlooking that 10. ...g5 11. Bg3 Nh5 12. Nxe5? Nxg3 13. Nxc6 fails for a couple of reasons (Qxf6 or Bxf2+). Kramnik was unsure whether Anand forgot this or didn't know it in the first place but after this black was better and white's position was already harder to play, slowly but surely Kramnik improved his position for a very comfortable win. They first played in 1989 and this either equalised the players' classical score or put Kramnik one up.

Magnus Carlsen seemed relieved to beat a struggling Hou Yifan with a last gasp win. Carlsen felt he built up quite a significant advantage but was dissatisfied with his exchange sacrifice idea which he felt in retrospect wasn't the best decision. Carlsen pressed for a long time but it was only after the error 50...d5? that he had the win.

Sergey Karjakin beat Fabiano Caruana after the latter made a very strange oversight just leaving a pawn to be taken after 17...Qe7 18.Bxb7. It took Karjakin a bit of time to convert but the result wasn't much in doubt.

Gawain Jones ended up being a bit worse against Peter Svidler but after 27...fxe4 (27...f4!?) the position equalised and the game was drawn. Wesley So was a tiny bit better against Anish Giri but the game finished in a draw. Maxim Matlakov was better throughout against Baskaran Adhiban but he couldn't increase his advantage enough to win.

Anton Korobov maintained his 1pt lead over Santosh Vidit after both drew in round 7.

Round 7 Standings: 1st Mamedyarov 5.5/7pts, 2nd= Giri, Kramnik, Wesley So, Carlsen 4.5pts 6th= Karjakin, Anand 4pts 8th= Jones, Matlakov, Svidler 3.5pts 11th Wei Yi 2.5pts 12th Caruana 2pts 13th Adhiban 1.5pts 14th Hou Yifan 1pt

Round 8 Pairings Sunday 21st Jan 2018 12:30pm GMT: Hou Yifan-Caruana, Adhiban-Karjakin, Wei Yi-Matlakov, Giri-Mamedyarov, Kramnik- Wesley So, Svidler-Anand, Carlsen-Jones.