Tal Memorial: Mamedyarov leads with one round to go

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010

At the Tal Memorial in Moscow.

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Hello Everyone,

The eighth round at the Tal Memorial was an exciting one with some great games. To begin with, Mamedyarov beat Wang Hao taking the lead in the tournament. There is just one round to go.

Meanwhile, Shirov also beat Pavel Eljanov in a game full of fireworks and Karjakin took a win against Kramnik. The other two games were drawn. Hope you've been following all the live action at the official website here.

Round 8 results

1. Karjakin, Sergey-Kramnik, Vladimir 1-0

2. Aronian, Levon-Grischuk, Alexander 1/2-1/2

3. Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar-Wang Hao 1-0

4. Nakamura, Hikaru-Gelfand, Boris 1/2-1/2

5. Shirov, Alexei-Eljanov, Pavel 1-0

Standings after 8 rounds

1. Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2763 5½

2. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2801 5

3. Karjakin, Sergey g RUS 2760 5

4. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2771 4½

5. Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2741 4½

6. Wang Hao g CHN 2727 4½

7. Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2791 3½

8. Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2735 3

9. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2741 2½

10. Eljanov, Pavel g UKR 2742 2

Meanwhile, here are the nice games from round eight. You can run the moves through our pgnplayer or watch in flash below.

PGN: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6. Be3 Nd7 7. O-O Ne7 8. c4 dxc4 9. Na3 c3 10. Nb5 Nd5 11. Nxc3 Nxc3 12. bxc3 Be7 13. dxc5 Bxc5 14. Qa4 Bxe3 15. Rad1 a6 16. fxe3 b5 17. Qf4 Qc7 18. g4 Bg6 19. h4 h5 20. Rd6 hxg4 21. Nd4 Nc5 22. Qxg4 Qe7 23. Bf3 Rxh4 24. Bc6+ Kf8 25. Qxg6 1-0

PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Be7 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nd7 9. O-O-O Ne5 10. h4 c6 11. c4 Be6 12. Ng5 Bf5 13. Kb1 Re8 14. f3 h6 15. Be2 d5 16. g4 Bg6 17. f4 dxc4 18. Qc3 Nd3 19. f5 Bxg5 20. fxg6 Rxe3 21. gxf7+ Kf8 22. Qxc4 Rxe2 23. hxg5 Qxg5 24. Qxd3 Qe3 25. Qh7 Qe4 26. Qg8+ Ke7 27. Qxg7 Qxc2+ 28. Ka1 Rf8 29. Rhf1 Rd2 30. Rfe1+ Re2 31. Qc3 Kxf7 32. Qf3+ 1-0