18-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov kept the sole lead at the Tata Steel Masters 2023 after seven played rounds. He defeated Arjun Erigaisi yesterday to be a full point ahead of four runner-ups: Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, Praggnanandhaa and Wesley So.
It was a tense and very sharp game between the two youngsters, but Arjun Erigaisi made a mistake with 26.Qxb7 which happened to be decisive. Abdusattorov took advantage and didn’t let go.
Praggnanandhaa defeated Jorden van Foreest to score 4.5 points and get closer to the top. Pragg had a clear advantage from the early middlegame and slowly improved it throughout the game to eventually score a full point.
Wesley So scored his second consecutive win in the tournament, beating Gukesh D in yesterday’s seventh round. Everything started going wrong for Gukesh after 28.Rd2?! and Wesley forced him to resign after only 6 moves.
Magnus Carlsen is getting back into the winning mood, as he defeated Richard Rapport with White pieces. It was a very engaging game with Carlsen keeping the decisive advantage all way through.
Rankings after 7 played rounds:
| 1 | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 5½/7 | 2713 |
| 2 | Giri, Anish | 4½/7 | 2764 |
| 3 | Caruana, Fabiano | 4½/7 | 2766 |
| 4 | Praggnanandhaa | 4½/7 | 2684 |
| 5 | So, Wesley | 4½/7 | 2760 |
| 6 | Aronian, Levon | 4/7 | 2735 |
| 7 | Ding, Liren | 3½/7 | 2811 |
| 8 | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 3½/7 | 2719 |
| 9 | Carlsen, Magnus | 3½/7 | 2859 |
| 10 | Erigaisi Arjun | 3/7 | 2722 |
| 11 | Rapport, Richard | 2½/7 | 2740 |
| 12 | Keymer, Vincent | 2/7 | 2696 |
| 13 | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2/7 | 2681 |
| 14 | Gukesh D | 1½/7 | 2725 |
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