Today in Madrid, the second round of the context of the candidates for the chess crown began. In the 8th round, Azerbaijani Grassmaster Teimur Rajabov plays black figures with French representative Alireza Firuja.
Thymur after 7 rounds had 2.5 points, and he shared the last 7-8th positions with Firuja.
In the first circle, Rajabov suffered two defeats and tied five times. In the 1st round, Teimur played white with his opponent today. Then the Azerbaijani Grassmaster lost to the American to the American Hikar Nakamur in black, and in the 3rd round he made a quick draw of white with Jan Nepomnya. After a day of rest, Teimur, playing with black figures, concluded peace with the Poles by Yang-Kryshtof Duda, in the 5th round tied white with Chinese Dean Liezhen, and before the second day of rest did not begin to play white to win with Hungarian Richard Rapport. Finally, yesterday Rajabov lost to black American Fabiano Caruan.
Today, one party has already ended: Nepomnya and Dean tied. There are also today: Richard Rapport – Yan -Kshishtof Duda, Hikaru Nakamura – Fabiano Caruan.
Tournament position after the 7th round:
1. Speaking – 5.5 points; 2. Karuana – 5 points; 3. Nazamura – 3.5 points; 4-6. Dean, rapport, Duda – 3 points each; 7-8. Radzhabov, Firuja – 2.5 points.
The competition takes place in two circles. Time control – 2 hours for the first 40 moves, 1 hour for the next 20 moves, 15 minutes for the rest of the party with the addition of 30 seconds starting from the 61st move.
If the chess players fighting in the 1st place will gain the same number of points according to the results of 14 rounds, then they will find a tie-break-two batches in quick chess, and if necessary, then blitz until the strongest is determined.
The winner of the tournament will receive 48 thousand euros and the right to challenge the championship crown in a match with the current world champion Magnus Karlsen. True, the Norwegian himself has repeatedly stated that he was not very interested to play a champion match again, noting that he would like to meet with Aliraza Firuja in the struggle for a chess crown. If Carlsen refuses to protect the title, then chess players who took 1st and 2nd places in the applicants’ tournament will compete for the title of world champion.