The Week in Chess

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