What could have been a victory lap for Fabiano Caruana has turned into a struggle to survive in the Vugar Gashimov memorial tournament in Shamkir. After giving up draws in rounds 6 and 7 from positions he should win, Caruana lost unnecessarily - with White, even - to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in round 8. Mamedyarov equalized in a Sveshnikov Sicilian, and then outplayed Caruana in a heavy piece endgame.
Suddenly there is all to play for, as Caruana is now only tied with Anish Giri for first, while Mamedyarov is just half a point behind and Sergey Karjakin a point back. Better still for dramatic purposes, but much worse for Caruana, he has Black against Karjakin in the last round, while Giri has Black against Mamedyarov.
In fact, Giri had good chances to take sole possession of first, playing White against tailender Hou Yifan. Giri enjoyed an advantage from early on, but although he tried for a long time - 103 moves in all - she defended excellently and saved the game.
As for Karjakin, he drew very easily with Black against Eltaj Safarli, and they split the point in just 22 moves. It was an easy day at the office for him, but with the draw Karjakin is mathematically eliminated from any possibility of a first-place tie. On the flip side, he's guaranteed of at least a tie for second place if he defeats Caruana tomorrow.
The other two games, Teimour Radjabov vs. Pentala Harikrishna and Rauf Mamedov vs. Pavel Eljanov, were also drawn, with no one experiencing any real danger on the way to the handshake.
Here's Caruana-Mamedyarov (with my comments), and here are the final round pairings: