Mamedyarov Maintains Firm Lead In Shamkir
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is getting closer and closer to tournament victory at the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan. All games ended in draws on Friday, so the Azerbaijani grandmaster still has his full-point lead with three rounds to go.
Adams & Mamedyarov start their game. | Photo courtesy Shamkir Chess.
Last year he won a tiebreak vs Fabiano Caruana to emerge as the winner of the third edition. This year, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov seems to be cruising to sole victory, although many things can happen in the final three rounds.
In today's game Mamedyarov tried an interesting pawn sacrifice in a Queen's Gambit Declined, but Michael Adams did not take the pawn, played it safe and equalized quickly.
Earlier in the tournament his 67-game unbeaten streak came to an end, and the tournament continues to see ups and downs for Wesley So. Today he drew with Pavel Eljanov, but barely.
The Ukrainian seemed better prepared, and continued to keep pressure on his opponent throughout the game. As our GM commentator shows, only some unfortunate rook maneuvers in time trouble prevented Eljanov from winning this game.
So and Eljanov at the post-mortem. | Photo courtesy Shamkir Chess.
The most spectacular of the five draws was played between Teimour Radjabov and Veselin Topalov. However, most of the game was theory (including a game by the late Vugar Gashimov himself), and so it was mostly a test for the players: until where did they remember?
Radjabov and Topalov, ready for a sharp, theoretical Najdorf. | Photo courtesy Shamkir Chess.
2017 Vugar Gashimov Memorial | Round 7 Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar | 2772 | 2929 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5.0/7 | |||||
| 2 | Adams,Michael | 2761 | 2811 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 4.0/7 | 14.00 | ||||
| 3 | Topalov,Veselin | 2741 | 2818 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 4.0/7 | 13.50 | ||||
| 4 | So,Wesley | 2822 | 2817 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 4.0/7 | 13.25 | ||||
| 5 | Eljanov,Pavel | 2751 | 2758 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 3.5/7 | |||||
| 6 | Karjakin,Sergey | 2783 | 2723 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0/7 | 10.75 | ||||
| 7 | Radjabov,Teimour | 2710 | 2712 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0/7 | 10.75 | ||||
| 8 | Wojtaszek,Radoslaw | 2745 | 2718 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0/7 | 9.50 | ||||
| 9 | Kramnik,Vladimir | 2811 | 2712 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.0/7 | 9.00 | ||||
| 10 | Harikrishna,Pentala | 2755 | 2660 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 2.5/7 |
Games from TWIC.
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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