Anand leading the race after Morelia leg (updated)

tournament continues on 28th February in Linares, Spain

Round 7 results:

Vishy Anand - Vassily Ivanchuk draw
Alexei Shirov - Teimour Radjabov 1-0
Magnus Carlsen - Levon Aronian 1-0
Peter Leko - Veselin Topalov 0-1

Round 7 standings:

1. Vishy Anand 4.5
2-3. Alexei Shirov and Veselin Topalov 4.0
3-5. Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen 3.5
6-7. Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk 3.0
8. Peter Leko 2.5

Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian played a complicated game, in which Carlsen mixed the move order and after 11.h3 Re8 was no more able to play Be3. In words of GM Vladimir Dimitrov who commented this game live: "Carlsen continued 12.Bg5 but by standard means Black got the upper hand. As a best practical chance, the youngster sacrificed a pawn to complicate things for his opponent. This proved to be successful strategy as Aronian, after a long thought, went for a line where he missed a nice counter with Queen sacrifice. By force a position was reached where Black had his Knight situated on 'h2' with no retreat route. That was enough for Carlsen to achieve his second victory here. Luck turned its back this time to Aronian and he lost to Magnus the point grabbed from Ivanchuk."

Veselin Topalov employed his favorite 8...b4, variation that brought him World Championship title in San Luis, against Peter Leko's Naidorf Sicilian English attack. The position was finely balanced through most of the middlegame, and then a sudden 33...Rd1!? surprised Leko who didn't react in best possible way. Instead of searching for a draw with queens on the board, he decided to give the queen for two rooks, but sequence of precise moves 36...e4!, 37...Ng4! and 38...Qb8!, earned the full point for Topalov.

Teimour Radjabov is probably analysing King's Indian defence more than anyone else, but he completely misplayed the opening against Alexei Shirov. Maybe he wanted to improvise something over the board or he simply forgot prepared transpositions. Black was lost already after 20 moves, being pawn and "position" down. Nevertheless, one wasted tempo by Shirov (22. Kh1?), allowed Radjabov to almost equalize after assault on e4 pawn with Qg6-f3-Nfxd5. Radjabov then returns the favor with weak 27...Qf7 and quick reaction 28. g4! gives advantage back to Shirov. This evaluation remained valid after the time control and then Teimour jailed his own queen by rushing to take the pawn back. He resigned immediately after.

The game between Vishwanatan Anand and Vassily Ivanchuk was a regular Sheveningen Sicilian where black accurately held equal position until a draw was signed on 31st move. Anand was clearly more dangerous with black pieces which brought him three wins and only Topalov was able to achieve a draw.

Goran Urosevic

Round 8 pairings:

Vishwanatan Anand - Alexei Shirov
Vassily Ivanchuk - Magnus Carlsen
Teimour Radjabov - Peter Leko
Levon Aronian - Veselin Topalov

Please note there is a 4-day break as players have to fly from Mexico to Linares, Spain and overcome the jet lag and time zone change. Join us on Thursday, February 28th, at 9:30 EST / 15:30 CET for the live commentary on the 8th round of Morelia Linares tournament. See you there!