Medias Kings Rd8: three draws, Carlsen leads with two games to go

by ChessBase
6/19/2011 – After breathtaking battles day in and day out, and at least one knockout for the audience, today's games all ended in a draw. To be fair they were hard fought, but nobody fell to the mat. With only two rounds left, Carlsen maintains his lead and it is now that much harder to overtake him. Our GM commentator Dorian Rogozenco provides commentary in his entertaining and instructive style.

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ROMGAZ and the Chess Club Society "Elisabeta Polihroniade” of Bucharest are staging a double round robin tournament with six top GMs: the world's second highest ranked player, Magnus Carlsen of Norway; Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk, currently the world's number five; Sergey Karjakin, former child prodigy and youngest GM of all time; top US grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, clear winner of this year's Wijk aan Zee tournament; Teimour Radjabov, one of Azerbaijan's top GMs, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, the best Romanian player. The competition is taking place from June 11th to 22nd 2011 in Medias, Romania.

Round eight results

Round 8: Sunday, June 19, 15:30h
Teimour Radjabov 
½-½
 Magnus Carlsen
Vassily Ivanchuk 
½-½
 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Hikaru Nakamura 
½-½
 Sergey Karjakin

Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Although in the eighth round of the Kings‘ Tournament all the games finished in draws, all the games were well-fought. Ivanchuk-Nisipeanu was a fantastic battle of a very high quality. The game started with 1.c4 c5 (the English Opening) and then transferred to a sharp line of Sicilian Kan Variation. Ivanchuk’s 13.Na4 forced Black to go for big complications. Nisipeanu sacrificed a pawn and started to play against the white king stuck in the center. Both players did their best and after wild complications the game finished in a draw by repetition.


Ivanchuk vs Nisipeanu, with tournament president Elisabeta Polihroniade looking on

Radjabov-Carlsen saw another Queen’s Gambit Declined. The game confirmed its reputation of being a rock solid opening. White failed to get any advantage and the game was drawn on move 29 after some short and interesting complications in the end.


Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov preparing to do battle against...


... his Norwegian colleague Magnus Carlsen, who leads in Medias

Nakamura on the white side against Karjakin seemed to have some opening advantage in the Petrosian Variation of the Queen’s Indian. However, Karjakin’s play was precise, and after Nakamura made a slight inaccuracy on move 24, the Russian succeeded in fully solving all problems. The draw was agreed on move 47.


Hikaru Nakamura vs Sergey Karjakin in round eight


After eight rounds Nakamura is in third place, a full point behind...


... Sergey Karjakin, the player with the most varied – shirts!

Click to replay the games on a full JavaScript page or download them in PGN

All photos by Ionut Anisca


Standings after eight rounds

Schedule and results

Round 1: Saturday, June 11, 15:30h
Vassily Ivanchuk 
1-0
 Teimour Radjabov
Magnus Carlsen 
1-0
 Hikaru Nakamura
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 
½-½
 Sergey Karjakin
Round 2: Sunday, June 12, 15:30h
Teimour Radjabov 
½-½
 Sergey Karjakin
Hikaru Nakamura 
1-0
 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Vassily Ivanchuk 
½-½
 Magnus Carlsen
Round 3: Monday, June 13, 15:30h
Magnus Carlsen 
½-½
 Teimour Radjabov
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 
1-0
 Vassily Ivanchuk
Sergey Karjakin 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura
Round 4: Tuesday, June 14, 15:30h
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 
½-½
 Teimour Radjabov
Sergey Karjakin 
½-½
 Magnus Carlsen
Hikaru Nakamura 
½-½
 Vassily Ivanchuk
Round 5: Wednesday, June 15, 15:30h
Teimour Radjabov 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura
Vassily Ivanchuk 
0-1
 Sergey Karjakin
Magnus Carlsen 
1-0
 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Round 6: Friday, June 17, 15:30h
Teimour Radjabov 
½-½
 Vassily Ivanchuk
Hikaru Nakamura 
½-½
 Magnus Carlsen
Sergey Karjakin 
1-0
 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Round 7: Saturday, June 18, 15:30h
Sergey Karjakin 
½-½
 Teimour Radjabov
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 
½-½
 Hikaru Nakamura 
Magnus Carlsen 
1-0
 Vassily Ivanchuk
Round 8: Sunday, June 19, 15:30h
Teimour Radjabov 
½-½
 Magnus Carlsen
Vassily Ivanchuk 
½-½
 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Hikaru Nakamura 
½-½
 Sergey Karjakin
Round 9: Monday, June 20, 15:30h
Hikaru Nakamura 
   Teimour Radjabov
Sergey Karjakin 
   Vassily Ivanchuk
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 
   Magnus Carlsen
GamesReport
Round 10: Tuesday, June 21, 13:30h
Teimour Radjabov 
   Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Magnus Carlsen 
   Sergey Karjakin
Vassily Ivanchuk 
   Hikaru Nakamura 
GamesReport

Links

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