Carlsen Whitewashes Kramnik, Closes On Aronian
Magnus Carlsen struck twice against Vladimir Kramnik in round seven at Amber to heap further misery on the Russian, and to close within half a point of the leader Lev Aronian.
Aronian had an easy win against Boris Gelfand when the latter lost track of the position in their blindfold game and put his queen en prise.
Vassily Ivanchuk continued his recovery with a classy rapid win over Alexander Grischuk, earning the game of the day prize for the third day in a row.
The only other decisive result of the day saw poor Anish Giri lose his blindfold game with Veselin Topalov. Even as talented a young player as Giri is finding this incredibly high-quality Amber field hard to cope with.
Kramnik was Carlsen's 'client' today, first losing in the blindfold...
...and again in the rapid game
Another blindfold blunder...Gelfand gifts a win to Aronian
Giri's struggles continue against Topalov
When he's good, he's very, very good...Chucky strikes again
The results on day 7:
| Blind | Giri-Topalov | 0-1 |
| Carlsen-Kramnik | 1-0 | |
| Gashimov-Karjakin | ½-½ | |
| Blind | Aronian-Gelfand | 1-0 |
| Ivanchuk-Grischuk | ½-½ | |
| Nakamura-Anand | ½-½ | |
| Rapid | Topalov-Giri | ½-½ |
| Kramnik-Carlsen | 0-1 | |
| Karjakin-Gashimov | ½-½ | |
| Rapid | Gelfand-Aronian | ½-½ |
| Grischuk-Ivanchuk | 0-1 | |
| Anand-Nakamura | ½-½ |
The standings after day 7:
| 1 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2808 | 10 |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2815 | 9½ |
| 3 | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2817 | 8 |
| 4 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2747 | 7½ |
| 5 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2779 | 7 |
| 6 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2775 | 7 |
| 7 | Gashimov, Vugar | AZE | 2746 | 6½ |
| 8 | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2733 | 6½ |
| 9 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2776 | 6½ |
| 10 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2774 | 6 |
| 11 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2785 | 5 |
| 12 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2690 | 4½ |
Photos: Association Max Euwe.
