Morelia/Linares halfway

If we look back at Morelia/Linares, now halfway through, we can safely say that no chess fan has been disappointed. All right, the players made more mistakes than usual, but it has made the tourney all the more exciting.

So far, there have been more decisive games than draws, which by itself is already a remarkable fact. This has probably something to do with the specific field of players: almost without exception big fighters who avoid the Petroff. Okay, Peter Leko is playing, and he's not exactly known as a player with a very entertaining style, but to say that he's shown boring games in Morelia? Very unfortunate, yes, and halfway this put him all the way down in the standings.

Anand occupies the other side of the list: leading, with 4.5 out of 7. He's got excellent chances to keep the title this year. Besides, Vishy seems to be playing for a win in almost every game, even with Black, and he wasn't unsuccessful with that. Shirov, who has finished (shared) last lots of times in Linares, has been showing very good chess in recent months and is now on a fine second place, shared with Topalov. The Bulgarian experienced ups and dows: some flashes of his top form of 2005, and some moves at 2400 level.

Aronian and Carlsen also share a spot: both on 3.5 points (50%). The former started in remarkable fashion: first he got smashed by Topalov, and then he defeated Anand in a very nice attacking game. But he can certainly do better than his first half, because the only other victory was that lucky one against Ivanchuk. Carlsen can be kind of satisfied: on the one hand two very nice victories against Topalov and Aronian, on the other hand a deserved defeat against Anand and an unnecessary loss against Radjabov.

That same Radjabov has more reason to complain. Except for that full point against Carlsen, the Azeri doesn't have much else to be proud of. On the same number of points (3) is Ivanchuk, but his play looks a bit less shaky, except for that drama game of course. And so we return to Leko, who might find some inspiration in Morozevich's achievement of 2007. From 2 out of 7 (even a half point less), the Russian had a magnificent comeback to finally finish second behind Anand.

Thursday afternoon, the eighth round will be held; I will fly to Madrid tomorrow and then catch a train to Linares. There I will produce as much videos as possible. Hopefully I will succeed in getting all the players before the came at least once.

I had a nice idea: why don't you guys leave questions in the comments? What do you want to know about these players? I look forward to connect my computer tomorrow evening in hotel Anibal, and find some good questions under this article!