Wijk aan Zee, Round 7

Abdusattorov increases his lead to a full point.

Maybe there was something in the water today, as four of the seven games finished with a winner (and it probably should have been six of seven), while in the Challengers tournament there were six decisive games. Good times for us, as spectators.

In the race for tournament victory, it was a great day for Nodirbek Abdusattorov. He defeated - crushed - Arjun Erigaisi with Black in a Petroff, and when Fabiano Caruana failed to convert a winning queen ending against Parham Maghsoodloo it turned out that Abdusattorov’s lead reached a full point. He has a fantastic score of 5.5/7, with Caruana, Anish Giri (who drew quickly with Levon Aronian), Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (who convincingly defeated Jorden Van Foreest), and Wesley So (who defeated Dommaraju Gukesh, whose tournament has been as bad as Abdusattorov’s has been good) are all a point behind.

Aronian is another half a point behind, and then there’s Maghsoodloo and the pre-tournament favorites, Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren all on 50%. Carlsen defeated Richard Rapport, who chose the wrong way to sac a piece and eventually found himself down material without sufficient compensation. As for Ding, he had to work very hard not to lose against Vincent Keymer, who has been struggling in the event. (To repeat a line I’ve used before [from Randy Pausch, I think] he is getting experience, which is what you get when you don’t get what you want.) Still, there are six rounds left, which is plenty of time to turn a “mere” learning experience into a fine tournament in its own right.

The round 8 pairings follow - and they look terrific - and here’s a link to the games (with my comments):

Abdusattorov (5.5) - Aronian (4)

Caruana (4.5) - Carlsen (3.5)

So (4.5) - Ding (3.5)

Giri (4.5) - Keymer (2)

Rapport (2.5) - Praggnanandhaa (4.5)

Van Foreest (2) - Erigaisi (3)

Gukesh (1.5) - Maghsoodloo (3.5)