Grenke: Shakeup! Caruana and Carlsen to the top

"Bad game, good point"

Timely black wins from both contenders of the next World Championship were the story of round seven on Saturday. Caruana dominated Vachier-Lagrave's English in an impressive show, while Carlsen was dissatisfied with his play, calling his win over Naiditsch a "bad game, good point". Carlsen is now nipping at the heels of Caruana, the new sole leader, but faces an important test in his next game with white against Vitiugov, with whom he shares second place.

Caruana looks over his shoulder — Magnus Carlsen is lurking | Photo: Frederic Friedel

Vachier-Lagrave 0-1 Caruana

The experience of being smashed to pieces by the opponent's overpowering bishop pair is shared by every chess player. The antidote was demonstrated by Fabiano Caruana in his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Caruana maintained a rock on the e4-square in the way of Vachier-Lagrave's Fianchettoed light-squared bishop: first a pawn, then knight and a bishop. It spoke volumes that the once proud bishop finally gave up and went back to f1, where he subsequently found a rather sad existence. A simple but well thought-out opening concept, against which "MVL" found no solution today. Caruana made it look effortless, as he gained space and was able to collect a weak pawn. Instead of going into a winning but protracted endgame, he then systematically created further weaknesses in his opponent's camp.

Annotations by GM Daniel Fernandez

The English Opening Vol. 1

Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.

Aronian ½-½ Vitiugov

The Russian grandmaster Nikita Vitiugov is not as well known, locally, as the other protagonists of the GRENKE Chess Classic, but his class was again on display in the game against Levon Aronian. With black, Vitiugov had everything under control at all times and has remained solidly at the top of the table, though now sharing second place with Carlsen.

Power Play 24: A repertoire for black against the Catalan

On this DVD Grandmaster Daniel King offers you a repertoire for Black against the Catalan, based around maintaining the rock of a pawn on d5. Keeping central control ultimately gives Black good chances to launch an attack against the enemy king.

31-year-old Nikita Vitiugov | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Naiditsch 0-1 Carlsen

One reason Magnus Carlsen is World Champion is that he rarely loses a game — so far in this tournament, none at all. Sprinkle in a few wins here and there and you have all it takes to keep your leading position in the world. In this tournament, Carlsen has shown patience in this sense, which was rewarded today: Against Arkadij Naiditsch the World Champion took full advantage of the cards he was dealt.

The complex Najdorf

When choosing an opening repertoire, there are days when you want to play for a win with Black, when you want to bear down on your opponent’s position with a potentially crushing attack. The Najdorf is perfect for just such occasions. Strategy, combinations, attack and defence, sacrifices and marvellous manoeuvres — exciting chess is all about the Najdorf!

After beating Naiditsch with black, Carlsen can fight for first, if he gets past Vitiugov | Photo: Frederic Friedel

Hou Yifan ½-½ Bluebaum

At no time did the match move outside the range of a draw, although Matthias Bluebaum had a long-lasting initiative in the rook and bishop endgame. The Chinese defused the situation eventually — and peace was inevitable.

Chess Endgames 9 - Rook and Minor Piece

Endings with rook and minor piece against rook and minor piece occur very frequently, even more often than rook endings, yet there's not much literature on them. This endgame DVD fills this gap. The four different material constellations rook and knight vs rook and knight, rooks and opposite coloured (and same coloured ) bishops and rook and bishop vs rook and knight are dealt with. In view of the different material constellations Karsten Mueller explains many guidelines like e.g. "With knights even a small initiative weighs heavily".

Hou Yifan | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Anand ½-½ Meier

This might have been Viswanathan Anand's second consecutive loss against a German player after yesterday if Meier had grabbed his chances in the endgame.

French Defence Strategy

The French Defence is one of the best choices a player can make for his opening repertoire, especially older players with limited study time. The solid construction of Black’s game puts the onus on positional understanding and makes it immune to sharp and tricky variations. The longer you play the French the better you’ll play it. On this DVD Nigel Davies explains the strategy behind the French Defence by examining typical pawn structures and explaining the plans and ideas for both sides.

Anand languishes at the bottom of the standings | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Standings after seven rounds

All games

Peter Leko's round seven recap

Commentary webcast

Commentary by GM Peter Leko and GM Jan Gustafsson

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
Game annotations: GM Daniel Fernandez

Links

• Grenke Chess Classic official site
• Grenke Chess Open official site
• Grenke Open: 13-year-old-steals the spotlight
• Round 6: Bluebaum beats Anand
• Round 5: Five draws in round five
• Round 4: Three on three
• Round 3: Black strikes back
• Round 2: The power of white
• Round 1: An exciting start as Carlsen and Caruana face off