Mamedyarov Leads Tal Memorial

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov leads the Tal Memorial in Moscow with just one round remaining.

But first, the most surprising result of the tournament came in round seven when Boris Gelfand committed one of the worst chess sins: resigning in a drawn position. The draw was by no means certain, but Wang Hao was the grateful beneficiary. All the other games in the round were drawn, including Mamedyarov holding Kramnik, and Nakamura holding Aronian.

In the penultimate round, Shirov finally bagged his first win of the event by crushing fellow straggler Eljanov.  Karjakin also scored a win against Kramnik, and made it look easy to boot.  By his own high standards, Kramnik has had a disappointing tournament.

So it was left to Mamedyarov to take the sole lead on 5.5/8 by beating Wang Hao.

The standings going into the final round:

The three contenders for first place all have black in the final round: Mamedyarov plays Gelfand, Aronian plays Eljanov, and Karjakin plays Wang Hao.

Live games here.  Live video coverage here.