The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen moved within half a point of Boris Gelfand with a round to go of the Tal Memorial. Carlsen defeated Hikaru Nakamura in a strange game in the Catalan. Carlsen obtained a huge advantage after the opening, Nakamura was probably feeling uncomfortable but his 13...e5 looks an idea not likely to be repeated, 13....exd5 had been played before. After 22.e5 it was difficult to imagine black surviving for long but Carlsen thought just about anything would win and after 29...Bd3 allowing the bishop to return to the game only Bh3 would do. 30...Rxe5! would have almost equalised for black. A move later it wasn't as good and Carlsen finished things off more cleanly the second time around (37...Bc2?!). Carlsen will win the event if he beats Mamedyarov with black in the final round and Gelfand only draws against Kramnik with black. Other permutations are possible.

Alexander Morozevich pushed a little too hard against Fabiano Caruana and got his pieces tied up in an attempt to win. 38.g5? was the decisive error when 38.bxc5 would probably have drawn.

Boris Gelfand didn't push too hard against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov both seemed satisfied with a draw. Dmmitry Andreikin and Sergey Karjakin tried to sacrifice pawns for the initiative against each other but they both kept refusing and ended up trading to a draw. Viswanathan Anand played 5.e4 in the Classical Nimzo-Indian for what seems like the first time but there was a quick liquidation to a draw. Kramnik looked poorly and things don't finish tomorrow he travels to Geneva for a four day rapid on the 25th (along with Nakamura, Mamedyarov and to be joined by Bacrot, Kosteniuk, Edouard, Pelletie...).

Round 8 Standigns: Gelfand 5.5/8, Carlsen 5 Mamedyarov, Andreikin, Caruana, Nakamura 4.5, Karjakin 3.5, Anand 3, Morozevich, Kramnik 2.5.

Round 9 2 hours early 10am BST Pairings: Nakamura-Morozevich, Mamedyarov-Carlsen, Kramnik-Gelfand, Karjakin-Anand, Caruana-Andreikin.