Caruana Leads The Reykjavik Open
Fabiano Caruana bounced back from his draw in round with wins in rounds six and seven - the latter a very nice victory over Ivan Cheparinov - to take a clear lead at the Reyjavik Open. His score of 6.5/7 puts him half a point ahead of Ivan Sokolov (who was perhaps a little lucky to draw Robert Hess in round 7) and Boris Avrukh (who was extremely lucky to defeat Gawain Jones in that same round, helped in large part by the latter's inexplicable 46.g4?!/? hxg4 47.Rb5?, turning a probably won position into one that gave him the worse half of a draw, and which he eventually lost). It also solidifies his spot at #6 on the Live Ratings list, an accomplishment that is all the more impressive by virtue of having been achieved due to success both in elite round-robins and in open swisses. Whatever he's doing, he should keep doing it!
There are two rounds to go, and in round 8 he'll have White against Sokolov while Avrukh will have White against Cheparinov. Cheparinov leads a group of six players with 5.5 points, a very strong group that also includes David Navara, Hess, and Hou Yifan.
The three aforementioned games from round 7 can be replayed here, with brief notes.
Reader Comments (1)
I am curious what you thought of Nakamura's recent tweet, which seems to be referring to Caruana's performance in Reykjavik:
"After seeing people picking up rating points off of beating weaker players, I am convinced chess ratings should be weighted like in tennis."
Sour grapes?
[DM: Yes, it doesn't strike one as particularly gracious. It also ignores Caruana's fine results in recent round-robins - he isn't some kind of Swiss specialist who bombs against the big boys. One might further note that Nakamura almost completely swore off open events a year or two ago, and did so at least in part because a bad performance in an open event hurts one's rating far more than a bad performance at the elite level. No irony here, folks, just move along. There's nothing to see....]