Bilbao, Rd. 8: Two draws and So beats Giri

by André Schulz
7/21/2016 – In round eight of the "Masters" in Bilbao Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin played a last time against each before they will meet in the World Championship match in November. However, it was hard to get excited about the game which quickly ended in a draw through a repetition of moves. The games of the other players offered more, particularly the encounter between Wesley So and Anish Giri, which So won after being worse. With two rounds to go Carlsen continues to lead the field.

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The next game between Carlsen and Karjakin is probably the
first game of the upcoming match for the World Championship.

In round three Karjakin played with Black against Carlsen and suffered a bitter defeat. In round eight Karjakin had White and controlled the game right from the start. However, the game had hardly begun when both players did not mind a repetition of moves that led to a draw after 19 moves - the shortest game with classical time-control Carlsen and Karjakin ever played against each other.

The other players created more action. Wei Yi and Hikaru Nakamura discussed an interesting sideline of the Catalan but though they tried neither player got much out of the opening and the middlegame. After 45 moves the game ended in a draw.

 

The most entertaining game of the round was doubtless the one between Wesley So and Anish Giri. The Dutch player chose an aggressive set-up against So's Italian and equalized without problems. However, he did not continue his energetic and step by step So was the one who set the pace. Eventually Giri found himself in an endgame that was difficult to defend and ended when Giri's was caught in a mating-net.

 

Results of round eight

  Title Name Country ELO Res. Title Name Country ELO
1 GM Wesley So
 
2775 3 - 0 GM Anish Giri
 
2790
2 GM Sergey Karjakin
 
2779 1 - 1 GM Magnus Carlsen
 
2851
3 GM Wei Yi
 
2694 1 - 1 GM Hikaru Nakamura
 
2787

Games - Rounds 1 to 8

 

 

Standings after eight rounds

  Title Name Nation Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pts. TB
1 GM Magnus Carlsen
 
2851   01 31 31 13.0 / 8  
2 GM Hikaru Nakamura
 
2787 31   11 11 10.0 / 8  
3 GM Wei Yi
 
2694 01 11   13 9.0 / 8 33.50
4 GM Wesley So
 
2775 11   11 13 9.0 / 8 30.50
5 GM Sergey Karjakin
 
2779 01 11   11 7.0 / 8  
6 GM Anish Giri
 
2790 10 10 11   6.0 / 8  

Tournament page...


André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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