Gashimov R7: Déjà vu

The Vugar Gashimov Memorial, is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from the 20th to 30th of April, in memory of the great Vugar Gashimov, who passed away on the 10th of January 2014. The tournament is divided into two groups. The A Group features six players: World Champion Magnus Carlsen (2881), Fabiano Caruana (2783), Sergey Karjakin (2772), Hikaru Nakamura (2772), and the two Azeri players Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2760) and Teimour Radjabov (2713). The B group consists of ten players, the top five seeds from various countries and the bottom five are all from Azerbaijan.

Rest Day

The rest day is always used to charge batteries and come back to the tournament with new energy, but how exactly players do this is unique to them. Some prefer sleeping all day and resting in the most literal of manners, while others prefer to excercise and explore the local culture and sights. Here are some of the things the players did on their rest day:

Give a simultaneous exhibition! This is not anyones preferred method of resting, but it is a great outreach to the local youth

Sergey Karjakin, serious even in simultaneous

Someone is still focusing, but the amount of extra white pawns on the board seems to have Radjabov relatively confident

It has become standard that in many tournaments on the free day a friendly soccer match is organized; the team captains seem to be the highest rated players of each squad!

Peter Heine Nielsen, acting as goalie, in an action shot

No one is too young or too old to participate here!

Friendly salutes before the game

"The Internationals"

Other players preferred a more relaxed approach to life.

Sergey Karjakin and his girlfriend Galiya Kamalova enjoying the scents of the local arboretum

What could be more romantic?

Only if the night ended with a private performance for important guests and players

a private jazz performance at that...

Round Seven

Some grandmasters mark the 40th move, which is the Time Control, on their scoresheets.
In case they somehow forget.

Radjabov, Teimour ½-½ Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
A game that resembled a Catalan didn't seem to be very troublesome for Mamedyarov as he comfortably equalized from the opening. White's over-exposed pawn on e5 could have caused him problems in the very long run so he decided to immediately swap off pieces and force a perpetual that sealed an early draw.

Radjabov didn't achieve much from the opening

A solid draw for Mamedyarov, very rarely something we write about him

Karjakin, Sergey ½-½ Caruana, Fabiano
Caruana was tested in his knowledge of the Grunfeld but this approach seems to be as successful as running into a brick wall and expecting it to topple over one day. The players reached what should be a drawn endgame after 26 moves that were played nearly instantly. Caruana needed only basic technique to hold the draw after the precise 27...Rc8! which was still part of his preparation.

27 moves of theory but no advantage: Karjakin-Caruana

Nakamura, Hikaru 0-1 Carlsen, Magnus
A familiar scenario... A 4.f3 Nimzo-Indian, a White advantage, and suddenly everything turns on its head and Carlsen wins. This time White's passive play just before time control gave Carlsen too much initiative.

Daniel King shows the game Nakamura vs Carlsen

Carlsen's power juice brings him back to the top

Nakamura will have to try in another tournament to beat Carlsen

Replay today's games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Standings

Images from the official web site

Video of round seven

Schedule and results

Live commentary on Playchess

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: Group A – Group B The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.