Rising Stars Increase Lead
Round seven of the NH Tournament in Amsterdam brought renewed success for the Rising Stars, as they won two games to stretch their lead to a more comfortable three points.
On target for the Rising Stars were Hikaru Nakamura (pictured) and Fabiano Caruana. Nakamura had a quick win when Loek van Wely seemed to forget his opening prep in a sharp Najdorf Sicilian, thereby losing in an embarrassingly brief 17 moves.
So, in the race to be the best Rising Star, Nakamura catches up with Anish Giri to share the lead with 4.5/7.
Overall, the top individual scorer so far is Boris Gelfand with 5/7.
The results in round seven:
| Nakamura – van Wely | 1 – 0 |
| Caruana – Nielsen | 1 – 0 |
| So – Svidler | ½ - ½ |
| Giri – Gelfand | ½ - ½ |
| Howell – Ljubojevic | ½ - ½ |
The overall standings and scores:
| Experience | 16.0 |
||
| Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2739 | 5.0 |
| Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2734 | 3.5 |
| Ljubojevic, Ljubomir | SRB | 2572 | 2.5 |
| Van Wely, Loek | NED | 2677 | 2.5 |
| Nielsen, Peter Heine | DEN | 2700 | 2.5 |
| Rising Stars | 19.0 |
||
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2729 | 4.5 |
| Giri, Anish | NED | 2672 | 4.5 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2672 | 4.0 |
| Howell, David W L | ENG | 2616 | 3.0 |
| So, Wesley | PHI | 2674 | 3.0 |
