Uzchess 2025, Round 7

From three leaders to one.

Coming into round 7 there was a three-way tie for first between Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Parham Maghsoodloo, and Arjun Erigaisi. Happily for the spectators the first two opponents faced off, and the game was decisive. Abdusattorov had a better game from the jump as Maghsoodloo seemed to be surprised in the opening and didn’t handle it very well. He held his own for a while, managing not to make things worse until his 26th move. My guess is that he was tired of worrying about possibilities like Ne5 and Re5 and decided to take them off the table once and for all. The problem is that his 27…d6 weakened e6, and the cure was worse than the disease. Fittingly, the final move of the game was 39.Be6, forcing a speedy mate.

That assured Abdusattorov at least a share of the lead, and thanks to Erigaisi’s draw (with Black) with Richard Rapport he’s in clear first. Erigaisi played a solid line - somewhat unusually given his ever-combative approach - and held the draw easily. It was a rare short game in the tournament - just 26 moves.

The day’s other winner was Javokhir Sindarov, who handed Chithambaram Aravindh his third defeat of the tournament. Sindarov was doing very well out of the opening, but a transposition of moves gave away his advantage. Aravindh played well for a good while, but his 31st and especially his 32nd moves turned the tide in White’s favor. I hope and assume that Aravindh will bounce back soon, but this event has been a bit of a disaster so far, costing him 20 rating points and 11 places on the live rating list. As for Sindarov, he’s tied with Erigaisi for second, half a point behind Abdusattorov.

Ian Nepomniachtchi vs. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was a solid draw - if anything, it was Pragg with Black who had the slightly better of the play. I’m not sure what’s wrong with Nepo, if anything, but he is playing as if he hopes to draw all his games and be done with the event. As for Pragg, getting a draw with Black after back-to-back losses was a good idea, and now he can try to push again in the last two rounds.

Finally, Shamshiddin Vokhidov had winning advantage against Nodirbek Yakubboev thanks to the latter’s 30…Kxh6, which was a big (and slightly crazy) error. Yakubboev defended well after that, and a possibly nervous or frustrated Vokhidov decided to play the safety-first 48.Rxe5 instead of, say, the greedy 48.Rb5. It guaranteed him half a point, but gave away what were pretty good winning chances.

Today’s games, with my comments, are here. Here are the round eight pairings:

Praggnanandhaa (3.5) - Erigaisi (4.5)

Aravindh (2) - Rapport (3)

Yakubboev (3.5) - Sindarov (4.5)

Maghsoodloo (4) - Vokhidov (2)

Nepomniachtchi (3) - Abdusattorov (5)