Kings' R7: Carlsen beats Ivanchuk, sole leader again

Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader again at the Kings' Tournament in Medias, Romania. On Saturday the Norwegian defeated Vassily Ivanchuk, who in the ending played surprisingly fast and lost control. Sergey Karjakin faced another 3...f5 Ruy Lopez in which Teimour Radjabov had done his homework very well. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu had a nice advantage against Hikaru Nakamura but then spoilt it and so he also had to be satisfied with a draw.

General info

The Kings Tournament takes place June 11-21 at the Natural Gas Documentation and Information Centre in Medias, Romania. Magnus Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura, Teimour Radjabov and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu play a double round-robin with one rest day after five rounds. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves and then 15 minutes to finish the game, with a 30-second increment after move 60. No draws are allowed before move 30. Games start 15.30 local time (14.30 CET).

Round 7 report by GM Dorian Rogozenco

In the seventh round Magnus Carlsen retook his leadership by beating Vassily Ivanchuk with the white pieces. The Norwegian didn’t get much out of the opening in a Ragozin but kept on fighting, slowly improving his position. After the exchange of queens Carlsen nicely outplayed his strong opponent in endgame. Especially impressive was the way he created more and more weaknesses in Black’s camp first by advancing his pawns on the kingside, and then by switching doing the same on the opposite wing.



Karjakin-Radjabov saw another Jaenisch/Schliemann Gambit, where the Azerbaijani Grandmaster showed his excellent home preparation and achieved a draw confidently. It must be said that this 3...f5 in the Ruy Lopez is holding very well so far – in no game did White succeed to show an opening advantage against it. Does it mean that the line will become popular in the near future at the top level? The answer very much seems to be “yes”.



Nisipeanu got a pleasant advantage on the White side against Nakamura’s Sicilian Najdorf, but then let it quickly slip away. In an equal position White forced a repetition of moves in order to secure the draw.

Photos © Ionut Anisca

Thus after 7 rounds Carlsen is leading the tournament with 5 points, half a point more than Karjakin. Nakamura finds himself in the third place with 3.5 points.

Games round 7 - notes by GM Dorian Rogozenco

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Videos

 

Kings Tournament 2011 | Schedule & results Kings Tournament 2011 | Round 7 standings

Link

• Official website
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