Carlsen Beats Ivanchuk In Medias
Magnus Carlsen (pictured) demonstrated his superb endgame skills and his ability to create problems for his opponent, beating Vassily Ivanchuk in round seven of the Bazna Kings tournament in Medias, Romania.
Teimour Radjabov showed once again that the Schliemann is not just a surprise weapon, but a reliable answer to the Ruy Lopez - in his hands at least. Sergey Karjakin was unable to find a path to an advantage, and the game ended drawn.
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu appeared to have some chances to earn a win against Hikaru Nakamura, but eventually had to settle for a draw by repetition.
So Magnus Carlsen is once again the sole leader of the tournament on 5/7.
The standings after seven rounds:
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2815 | 5 |
| Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2776 | 4½ |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2774 | 3½ |
| Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2744 | 3 |
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2776 | 2½ |
| Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | ROU | 2659 | 2½ |
Games start at 15:30 local time (12:30 UTC) except the last round which is 2 hours earlier.
The time control is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes to finish with a 30 second increment after move 60.
The official site with live broadcasts of the games is here, and the full draw can be found here.
