Chessable

FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2022 (7)

Nepomniachtchi and Caruana win yet again in Round 7 of the FIDE Candidates

The pressure was on Caruana to win as he saw Nepomniachtchi win quickly in Round 7. Photo ©

The pressure was on Caruana to win as he saw Nepomniachtchi win quickly in Round 7. Photo © | https://fide.com

Ian Nepomniachtchi leads the FIDE Candidates in Madrid with 5.5/7 half a point clear of Fabiano Caruana at the half way stage. It looks like a battle between these two players at this stage as Hikaru Nakamura on 3.5/7 is the next closest player. We'll know the outline even better by Monday night, Round 8 tomorrow has the juicy pairings of Nepomniachtchi-Ding and Nakamura-Caruana and Round 9 on Monday sees Caruana-Nepomniachtchi.

Richard Rapport was quite out prepared by Nepomniachtchi in a sharp Petroff Defence but only to the extent that he should have allowed a draw by repetition. Rapport has had 6 draws so far and the decision to play on seems to have been an emotional one as Rapport surely must have understood that this was Nepomniachtchi's preparation and it turned out the Russian knew more moves too. Nepomniachtchi was winning by move 30 at the latest and brought home the full point. There just seemed no upside for Rapport to continue.

Fabiano Caruana had a harder time of it against Teimour Radjabov after being surprised in the opening in an O'Kelly Sicilian. That said although Caruana fell quite a way behind on the clock he got good chances to play for a win and I'm sure he was happy about that. 13.0-0-0 was the first new move although I find it a bit difficult to believe this was still Radjabov's preparation as white is definitely pushing for a win. Computers suggest 18.Qd3?! (18.Qb3!) 18...Qb4?! (18....Qc7!) was a chance to pretty much equalise for Radjabov. After that an extra pawn that Caruana had won and which at first didn't look terribly useful eventually came into play and by move 40 Caruana was winning and he duly converted. After the game Caruana was obviously pretty furious at Rapport for his loss against Nepomniactchi even if he tried to smile about it. "I felt kind of sick to be honest. It's one of the most shocking games I've seen from a top player in a long time." Caruana added that the line has been known for a decade and that if you get there as white you need to take the draw.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda against Hikaru Nakamura was a slightly unbalanced Nimzo-Indian which remained roughly balanced throughout. Alireza Firouzja used a line played by Fabiano Caruana against Wesley So last year, 10...Qa5 was new, black was dynamically equal and pieces were gradually traded off until there was a draw.

Round 7 Standings: 1st Nepomniachtchi 5.5pts, 2nd Caruana 5pts, 3rd Nakamura 3.5pts, 4th Duda 3pts, 4th Ding Liren 3pts, 4th Rapport 3pts, 7th Radjabov 2.5pts, 8th Firouzja 2.5pts.

Round 8 Sunday 26th June 2pm BST 2022 Rapport-Duda, Nepomniachtchi-Ding Liren, Nakamura-Caruana, Firouzja-Radjabov

FIDE World Chess Championship Candidates Tournament Round 7 Commentary

FIDE Candidates 2022 Madrid ESP (ESP), 16 vi-5 vii 2022 cat. XXI (2772)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1. Nepomniachtchi, Ian g RUS 2766 * * ½ . ½ . 1 . 1 . 1 . ½ . 1 . 3002
2. Caruana, Fabiano g USA 2783 ½ . * * 1 . ½ . ½ . ½ . 1 . 1 . 5 2928
3. Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2760 ½ . 0 . * * ½ . ½ . ½ . 1 . ½ . 2773
4. Duda, Jan-Krzysztof g POL 2750 0 . ½ . ½ . * * ½ . ½ . ½ . ½ . 3 2725
5. Ding, Liren g CHN 2806 0 . ½ . ½ . ½ . * * ½ . ½ . ½ . 3 2717
6. Rapport, Richard g HUN 2764 0 . ½ . ½ . ½ . ½ . * * ½ . ½ . 3 2723
7. Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2753 ½ . 0 . 0 . ½ . ½ . ½ . * * ½ . 2672
8. Firouzja, Alireza g FRA 2793 0 . 0 . ½ . ½ . ½ . ½ . ½ . * * 2666
Round 7 (June 25, 2022)
Caruana, Fabiano - Radjabov, Teimour 1-0 56 B28 Sicilian Early a7-a6
Duda, Jan-Krzysztof - Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ 40 E47 Nimzo Indian
Ding, Liren - Firouzja, Alireza ½-½ 54 A20 English Opening
Rapport, Richard - Nepomniachtchi, Ian 0-1 43 C42 Petroff's Defence

View the games on this Page

Download the PGN from this page

vs

Advertising

New in Chess Complete Chess Swindler


Chess.com Events


Chess and Bridge Fritz 19

Modern Chess Christmas


Jussupow course Build Up Your Chess 1: The Fundamentals

The New Jobava London System


Contact Mark Crowther (TWIC) if you wish to advertise here.


The Week in Chess Magazine

Send a £30 donation via Paypal and contact me via email (Email Mark Crowther - mdcrowth@btinternet.com) I'll send you an address for a cbv file of my personal copy of every issue of the games in one database. Over 3 million games.

Alternatively subscribe to donate £4 a month

Read about 25 years of TWIC.

TWIC 1532 18th March 2024 - 5625 games

Read TWIC 1532

Download TWIC 1532 PGN

Download TWIC 1532 ChessBase

TWIC Sponsor(s):

Clark St James Ltd - online advertising agency eg Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads