Italy’s Fabiano Caruana shot into the lead with a nice win over Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik in the eight round at the Tal Chess Memorial on Sunday. Kramnik not only lost a pawn, but in his self-destruct mode, committed an endgame blunder as well. What has been amazing so far at the tournament is that, Alexander Morozevich (leader since the beginning) has suddenly lost three games in a row. Vladimir Kramnik, who joined Morozevich in the lead, has lost two games in a row.
This is how they cheer chess players in Moscow…
Just kidding. It’s more like this!
All that to the benefit of Fabiano Caruana who said in the press conference, “Of course, this sudden gain of leadership is pleasant. I went to the game very optimistic today. Of course, I am very pleased with the result! Not every day can one beat a chess player like Kramnik.”
Luke McShane has now beaten both Morozevich and Kramnik back to back! Morover, Evgeny Tomashevsky played a great game against Magnus Carlsen to hold him to a draw.
Magnus Carlsen has been riddled with draws in this tournament. He did everything possible to beat Tomashevsky, but to no avail. Carlsen took all the risks he could.
You can watch the 7th Tal Chess Memorial live at the Russian Chess Federation website from India time 7.30 pm every day. There is a high-definition broadcast of the playing hall along with the live broadcast of all the games straight from Moscow’s very beautiful Pashkov House. Here is the Caruana-Kramnik game from Round 8. (Photos: Eteri Kublashvili/Russiachess.org)
