Kramnik even more

And he goes on and on. Vladimir Kramnik is in very good form in Monaco. Today he pushed away Peter Leko with 2-0, thereby improving his blindfold score to an impressive 6,5 out of 7 and increasing his overall lead. So far Anand is the best rapid player with 5,5 out of 7.

Of the blindfold games, Vallejo-Ivanchuk and Anand-Svidler were quick and quiet draws. Carlsen-Radjabov was a much more interesting draw but that's logical after 3...f5 in the Ruy Lopez! Magnus didn't play the main line and got something that looked like an attack, but Radja defended well. Gelfand outplayed Van Wely completely. Surprisingly, Kramnik went for the Marshall and Leko chose the old main line (by the way first played in Tal-Spassky, 1965). For a long time Sax-I.Sokolov, Haninge 1989 was followed. On the tournament website it's written that 23...Bf4 was new but actually the move was already played in Rybka Relic-Equidistance, CSS/Pal Freestyle 2006. 27.Ne5 (instead of 27.Bc2) was new, but not a big improvement. Still, Leko shouldn't have lost of course. Aronian-Morozevich was a small drama for White: he had tried to win a slightly better ending for about fourty moves, and then he forgot a bishop that was hanging. That's blindfold chess.

In the rapid section, Anand won convincingly - a nice, clean game. Vallejo seems to just drop a piece with 21...Bd7 but a lot happened before Ivanchuk finally won. Radjabov-Carlsen is only interesting because of the rare opening. With Black, Leko played a Botwinnig-setup against Kramnik's 1.Nf3 and the fact that Black could achieve ...d6-d5 was apparently no problem for White. Quite instructive for King's Indian players (like myself) who struggle against the c4-d3-e4-Nc3-Nge2-g3-Bg2 setup. Again a strong game by the world champion, though he could have won quicker. Van Wely had a promising position but Gelfand managed to draw, and Aronian-Morozevich was not very special. Blindfold games round 7:



Rapid games round 7:



Results round 7:

Blind:

Svidler      - Anand        ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?   
Vallejo Pons ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Ivanchuk     ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Carlsen      - Radjabov     ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Leko         - Kramnik      0-1
Gelfand      ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Van Wely     1-0
Aronian      - Morozevich   0-1

Rapid:

Anand        - Svidler      1-0
Ivanchuk     - Vallejo Pons 1-0
Radjabov     - Carlsen      ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Kramnik      - Leko         1-0
Van Wely     - Gelfand      ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Morozevich   - Aronian      ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?

Standings blind:

    1. Kramnik                 6?Ǭ?
    2. Gelfand                  5
  3-4. Ivanchuk, Svidler       4?Ǭ?   
  5-6. Morozevich, Radjabov    3?Ǭ?   
  7-9. Anand, Aronian           3
       Leko   
   10. Carlsen                 2?Ǭ?  
11-12. Vallejo Pons, Van Wely  1?Ǭ?

Standings rapid:

    1. Anand                   5?Ǭ?
    3. Aronian, Ivanchuk        5
    4. Kramnik                  4
  5-7. Carlsen, Leko,
       Morozevich              3?Ǭ?
    8. Svidler                  3
 9-11. Gelfand, Radjabov,
       Vallejo Pons            2?Ǭ?
   12. Van Wely                1?Ǭ?

Combined standings:

    1. Kramnik                 10?Ǭ?
    2. Ivanchuk                9?Ǭ?
    3. Anand                   8?Ǭ?
    4. Aronian                  8
  5-6. Gelfand, Svidler        7?Ǭ?
    7. Morozevich               7
    8. Leko                    6?Ǭ?
 9-10. Carlsen, Radjabov        6
   11. Vallejo Pons             4
   12. Van Wely                 3

Sunday is round 8:

Blind:

Van Wely     - Aronian 
Morozevich   - Leko
Kramnik      - Gelfand
Ivanchuk     - Carlsen 
Radjabov     - Svidler
Anand        - Vallejo

Rapid:

Aronian      - Van Wely 
Leko         - Morozevich
Gelfand      - Kramnik
Carlsen      - Ivanchuk
Svidler      - Radjabov
Vallejo      - Anand