Carlsen Falters, Ivanchuk Regains Lead at Amber
Magnus Carlsen faltered in round seven at Amber, allowing Vassily Ivanchuk to regain the lead.
Carlsen lost to Vugar Gashimov in their blindfold game, and drew in the rapid game to lose 1.5-0.5. Meanwhile, Ivanchuk beat Alexander Grischuk in their rapid game to lead the overall standings by half a point from Carlsen.
Sergey Karjakin crushed Ruslan Ponomariov 2-0 to climb the leaderboard, joining Boris Gelfand in third place.
Vladimir Kramnik missed an opportunity to close on the leaders today. After an easy win against Lev Aronian in their blindfold game, he failed to convert a winning position in the rapid encounter, eventually losing to draw the match 1-1.
Ivanchuk on his way to victory against Grischuk (picture from the official site)
The full results in round 7:
| Blind | Kramnik-Aronian | 1-0 |
| Gelfand-Smeets | ½-½ | |
| Gashimov-Carlsen | 1-0 | |
| Blind | Grischuk-Ivanchuk | ½-½ |
| Dominguez-Svidler | ½-½ | |
| Ponomariov-Karjakin | 0-1 | |
| Rapid | Aronian-Kramnik | 1-0 |
| Smeets-Gelfand | 0-1 | |
| Carlsen-Gashimov | ½-½ | |
| Rapid | Ivanchuk-Grischuk | 1-0 |
| Svidler-Dominguez | 1-0 | |
| Karjakin-Ponomariov | 1-0 |
The overall standings after seven rounds:
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 10 |
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 9.5 |
| Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 8.5 |
| Karjakin, Sergey | UKR | 8.5 |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 8 |
| Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 7.5 |
| Svidler, Peter | RUS | 7.5 |
| Gashimov, Vugar | AZE | 7 |
| Aronian, Levon | ARM | 6 |
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 5.5 |
| Smeets, Jan | NED | 3.5 |
| Dominguez Perez, Leinier | CUB | 2.5 |
A selection of games from round 7 are below. All games are available at the official website.
