3 June 2016
Caruana, Giri Leading In Shamkir With One Round To Go
Sergey Karjakin is on the 4th place and meets Caruana in the final round.
In the penultimate round of the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Fabiano Caruana, while other games were drawn: Giri-Hou Yifan, Radjabov-Harikrishna, Safarli-Karjakin, Mamedov-Eljanov.
In the key game of the day, Caruana, playing White, had a chance to force a draw by repetition, but decided to play on and chose a wrong plan, allowing the opponent to break in the center. The resulting endgame turned out to be won for Black, and after a number of mutual inaccuracies the game ended in Mamedyarov's favor. Thus, Anish Giri, who draw his 103-move game against the Women's World Champion, caught up with the leader.
Standings after 8 rounds:
Caruana, Giri 5.5
Mamedyarov 5
Karjakin 4.5
Harikrishna 4
Radjabov, Mamedov 3.5
Eljanov, Safarli 3
Hou Yifan 2.5
The 9th round is going to be very exciting: Mamedyarov has White against Giri, and Karjakin has White against Caruana.
