Candidates R7 – Mercy was the constant

From March 14 to April 1, 2013, FIDE and AGON – the World Chess Federation’s commercial partner – are staging the 2013 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2013. It will be the strongest tournament of its kind in history. The venue is The IET, 2 Savoy Place, London. The Prize Fund to be shared by the players totals €510,000. The winner of the Candidates will become the Challenger to Viswanathan Anand who has reigned as World Champion since 2007. The main sponsor for the Candidates is State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic SOCAR, which has sponsored elite events chess in the past.

Round seven report

By GM Alejandro Ramirez

Ivanchuk-Svidler ½-½

Ivanchuk achieved less than nothing out of this topical variation of the Scotch, and it was only due to Black’s restricted pawns and lack of plan that he was in no real danger. The two pieces that White had against Black’s rook simply had no targets and no dynamic continuations, but since Black couldn’t push forward his pawns the players resigned themselves to a quick draw. Watch the games develop and Svidler's commentary after he was finished.

Gelfand-Kramnik ½-½

Kramnik employs the Karpov variation of the Nimzo Indian again. His maneuver starting with 12… Qb8! gave him at least equality, and things were going well as pieces were starting to get swapped and White’s isolani on d4 would eventually become an attackable weakness. But out of the blue, Kramnik played a strange and very passive move… 18… Ne8?? which would’ve almost instantly lost to either 19. Nfg5! or 19. Neg5! which both crushed the kingside. Instead, Gelfand retreated to d2, defended an inferior position and achieved a draw.

Aronian-Grischuk ½-½

Aronian played a very elegant game, sacrificing a pawn to obtain strong strategical and positional advantages. Unfortunately for him Grischuk also defended well, and Aronian’s inexact 29. Qb5?! was sufficient to let Grischuk simplify into a drawn endgame. Here is their postgame interview:

And here is commentary by our guest analyst IM Zura Javakhadze

Carlsen-Radjabov ½-½

This game was absolutely wild. Black’s pawn structure was completely shattered before move 10 was even reached, but he had some space on the center and the pair of bishops to compensate. Carlsen put strong pressure on a very weak and doubled c5 pawn, but his kingside was left unguarded momentarily. Radjabov pounced and with the powerful Bg4-xf3 and Nh4 moves he amassed a strong force on the kingside. Carlsen didn’t react the best way, and soon he found himself down an exchange for almost no compensation. However Radjabov, in time pressure, kept misplaying the position until he had no choice but to give a perpetual check and draw the game!

GM Daniel King analyses the game Carlsen vs Radjabov

Commented games coming soon...

Current standings

Pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich

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Schedule and results

The games start at 14:00h = 2 p.m. London time = 15:00h European time, 17:00h Moscow, 8 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. Note that Britain and Europe switch to Summer time on March 31, so that the last two rounds will start an hour earlier for places that do not swich or have already done so (e.g. USA). The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.

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