Tal Memorial Standings Blown Wide Open
Both the co-leaders of the Tal Memorial in Moscow lost their 7th round games to blow the tournament standings wide open. With just two rounds remaining, five players are tied on 4 points!
Alexander Morozevich played another dangerous game and after he ignored a potential repetition in mutual time-trouble with Evgeny Tomashevsky, soon found himself losing his second game in a row.
Fellow co-leader Vladimir Kramnik was defeated after 94 moves and nearly 7 hours in an epic queen endgame struggle with Luke McShane - the last game of the day to finish.
Teimour Radjabov looked to have a good chance of taking the full point against Fabiano Caruana, but his advantage waned around the time control and the Italian hung on for a draw.
Magnus Carlsen's encounter with Hikaru Nakamura was an 'uneventful draw' according to the Norwegian star on Twitter, while Lev Aronian walked into some excellent opening preparation from Alexander Grischuk and had to settle for half a point.
Evgeny Tomashevsky scored his first win against leader Alexander Morozevich, but still places last
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Luke McShane caused a big upset by beating Vladimir Kramnik
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Teimour Radjabov missed good winning chances against Fabiano Caruana
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Hikaru Nakamura versus Magnus Carlsen was a surprisingly subdued affair
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Lev Aronian met with excellent preparation from Alexander Grischuk
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The standings after seven rounds:
| # | Name | Nat | Elo | Pts |
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2835 | 4 |
| 2 | Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2769 | 4 |
| 3 | Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2784 | 4 |
| 4 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2801 | 4 |
| 5 | Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2770 | 4 |
| 6 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2775 | 3½ |
| 7 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2761 | 3 |
| 8 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2825 | 3 |
| 9 | McShane, Luke J | ENG | 2706 | 3 |
| 10 | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | RUS | 2738 | 2½ |
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The pairings for round eight are:
| Fabiano Caruana | v | Vladimir Kramnik |
| Alexander Morozevich | v | Luke McShane |
| Magnus Carlsen | v | Evgeny Tomashevsky |
| Alexander Grischuk | v | Hikaru Nakamura |
| Teimour Radjabov | v | Lev Aronian |
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The pairings for round nine (final round) are:
| Lev Aronian | v | Fabiano Caruana |
| Hikaru Nakamura | v | Teimour Radjabov |
| Evgeny Tomashevsky | v | Alexander Grischuk |
| Luke McShane | v | Magnus Carlsen |
| Vladimir Kramnik | v | Alexander Morozevich |
Photos by Eteri Kublashvili. Games via TWIC.
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The 2012 Tal Memorial super-tournament takes place in Moscow, Russia from 7-19 June.
The format is a 10-player single round robin, with rounds starting at 15:00 local time (11:00 UTC), except for the last round which starts two hours earlier.
The total prize fund is €100,000 with €30,000 going to the winner. The time control in operation is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves, and finally 15 minutes to a finish with an increment of 30 seconds from the start. No draw offers will be allowed before move 40.
The tournament schedule:
| Date | Time | Event |
| 7 June | 18:30 | Blitz Tournament |
| 8 June | 15:00 | Round 1 |
| 9 June | 15:00 | Round 2 |
| 10 June | 15:00 | Round 3 |
| 11 June | Rest Day | |
| 12 June | 15:00 | Round 4 |
| 13 June | 15:00 | Round 5 |
| 14 June | 15:00 | Round 6 |
| 15 June | Rest Day | |
| 16 June | 15:00 | Round 7 |
| 17 June | 15:00 | Round 8 |
| 18 June | 13:00 | Round 9 |
| 19 June | Departure |
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There will be live video coverage on chess.com/tv (scroll down for the schedule) as well as at the official website. The video coverage at the official website is available for replay here (Russian commentary) and also here (English commentary).
Last year Magnus Carlsen won the tournament, narrowly beating Lev Aronian on superior tie-breaks after both finished with a score of 5½/9.
In case of a tie in this year's event, the tie-breaks are:
- Number of games played with black
- Number of wins
- Result of direct encounter
- Koya system
- Sonneborn-Berger
