Caruana takes the lead in the GRENKE tournament after 7 rounds - 7

Fabiano Caruana took the sole lead after defeating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in Round 7 of the GRENKE Classic. MVL got caught out in the opening and eventually allowed his pieces to become discoordinated. After 19...g5 MVL got pushed back and his position deteriorated quickly.

Magnus Carlsen finally won another game beating Arkadij Naiditsch using the Sicilian Defence as black.

Viswanathan Anand was in trouble against Georg Meier but eventually held the draw. Levon Aronian and Nikita Vitiugov drew a balanced struggle and Hou Yifan against Matthias Bluebaum was also drawn after a balanced looking game.

Round 7 standings: 1st Caruana 5pts, 2nd= Carlsen, Vitiugov 4.5pts 4th= Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian 4pts 6th Bluebaum 3.5pts, 7th= Hou Yifan, Anand, Naiditsch 2.5pts, 10th Meier 2pts.

Round 8 pairings Sunday 8th April 2pm: Carlsen-Vitiugov, Caruana-Aronian, Bluebaum-MVL, Meier-Hou Yifan, Naiditsch-Anand.