Norway Chess, Round 7: Three Leaders With Two Rounds to Go

Coming into the round Magnus Carlsen had more points than anyone else - 3.5 - but this was in part a function of his having played one more game than Wesley So. Carlsen had 3.5/6, So 3/5, and no one else had better than an even score. Carlsen had the bye in round 7 and So drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, leaving both Carlsen and So with 3.5/6.

The other three games featured players with a chance to catch up and join the tie for first. If Fabiano Caruana had beaten Hikaru Nakamura, or vice-versa, he'd have had 3.5/6, while the winner of Sergey Karjakin's game with Levon Aronian - had there been one - also would have reached +1. (Karjakin would have had 3.5/6, Aronian 4/7.) That left the game between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Viswanathan Anand. MVL was at -1 and couldn't have caught up, but Anand could have, and did: he too has 3.5/6.

With two rounds to go, here are the pairings for round 8:

• Nakamura (3/6) - Karjakin (3/6)
• Anand (3.5/6) - Caruana (3/6)
• So (3.5/6) - Vachier-Lagrave (2/6)
• Carlsen (3.5/6) - Mamedyarov (3/7)
• Aronian (3.5/7) - bye

The round 7 games, with some comments to MVL-Anand, are here.