Tata Steel Masters 2017 - Round 7

Like a famous English singer used to say: It's kind of magic. Giri can't be beaten, apparently. Today he played the Supreme Grinder and everything was going Carlsen's way, with the World Champion building his advantage slowly but steadily. Giri's hopes were all in an advanced pawn, supported by a rook. But the games was objectively lost for the Dutch talent. At move 56 all the engines - and the kibitzers - started to scream: mate in 23! Magnus wins again! But Magnus is human, after all. And he blundered horribly, by playing the much inferior 56 Bf7+, allowing Giri to equalize a totally lost position. Amazing. After the tragedy (for Magnus), the game went ahead for an almost infinite number of moves. Carlsen with Bishop, Rook and two pawns, and Giri with his solitary Queen. In the end, Carlsen stalemated Giri at move 123. We know how mentally strong is the World Champion, but it is well possible that today's unbelievable blunder will dent a mark on his confidence.

Karjakin won a big game versus Aronian. Sergey played really well, and with this win he gets back fighting for the first places.

Wei Yi played bullet today against Van Wely. Maybe this is the reason he missed a couple of very clear opportunities to win outright. The ending he got into was won anyway, and he went for the full point, but still, his game wasn't the best. Wei is very young, and sometimes it looks like he plays instinctively. His crystalline talent allows him to win often, and probably becoming more mature he will really be one of the strongest players in the world.

Winner of today's New In Chess sponsored Trivia is Zephyr. Congratulations!

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