Anish Giri and Hou Yifan Won in Round 7 of Moscow FIDE Grand Prix Leg

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Ding Liren maintain the lead.

On Friday, May 19, the seventh round of the FIDE Grand Prix leg was played in the Central Telegraph building.
 
Anish Giri celebrated his first victory at the tournament by winning against Saleh Salem in the Caro-Kann Defence. White organized a kingside attack and won a pawn. Before the first time control, Black had got some chances to survive, but mistakenly traded the queens and didn’t manage to defend the endgame with a pawn down. 

Hou Yifan outplayed Jon Ludvig Hammer in a tough struggle. The Chinese grandmaster won the exchange, but Hammer escaped the worst and managed to build a fortress. Hovewer, on the seventh hour of play, the Norwegian went for a concrete line and miscalculated.  

Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren discussed the Semi-Tarrasch Defense. The game went on in a rather smooth positional way, but Black was regularly facing problems and had to be precise all the time. Hakamura won the exchange in the endgame but it wasn’t sufficient for a win. Ding Liren found an ideal setup and made a draw. 

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk agreed to a draw on move 16. The game Vachier-Lagrave vs. Radjabov ended in a draw on move 19. The Russian derby Inarkiev - Nepomniachtchi was drawn on move 19 as well. 

Peter Svidler and Boris Gelfand played the Slav Defence, where White sacrificed a pawn for the initiative. In general, the game didn’t exceed the limits of a dynamic balance and ended in a draw. 

Evgeny Tomashevsky, who played against Pentala Harikrishna, was trying to covert his extra, but doubled pawn into something more valuable, but it wasn’t enough to win the endgame.  

Michael Adams managed to defend a complex middlegame against Francisco Vallejo and succeeded to make a draw in the endgame. 

Round 7 standings:

1-2. Ding Liren, Mamedyarov 4.5
3-9. Svidler, Radjabov, Grischuk, Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura, Gelfand, Giri - 4
10-11. Tomashevsky, Hou Yifan - 3.5
12-15. Nepomniachtchi, Harikrishna, Hammer, Vallejo - 3
16-17. Adams, Salem - 2.5
18. Inarkiev - 2

Round 8 pairings:

Ding Liren - Giri, Svidler - Mamedyarov, Grischuk - Nakamura, Radjabov - Gelfand, Tomashevsky - Vachier-Lagrave, Hou Yifan - Vallejo, Nepomniachtchi - Harikrishna, Hammer - Adams, Salem - Inarkiev

Event on Chess-Results

Official website

Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich