Berlin Candidates 2018 - Round 7

Half the tournament is behind us and Caruana is the sole leader.

I expect the remainder of the tournament to be a two-horse race between him and Mamedyarov. The others have just fallen too much behind to be able to catch up.

Caruana won his second game with Black, beating Aronian in yet another wild game in Berlin (the city, not the opening). It is difficult to describe the game, so please see the full comments here.

Karjakin was another player to win today. A surprising game, as I didn't expect So to lose such a dry and obviously drawn position, especially not after yesterday's excellent win against Aronian. 

Kramnik was again being his usual over-confident self, either "much better" or "winning" throughout the game. It was funny to see Ding Liren smile at these evaluations at the press conference!

Mamedyarov showed great preparation and forced Grischuk to repeat early on in the Ragozin.

Complete analysis and a few thoughts on how the tournament has been going so far at http://www.alexcolovic.com/2018/03/berlin-candidates-2018-round-7/