Despite the symmetrical structure, Aronian always had the more active pieces. His plan of pushing up the queenside pawns increased the pressure and then a pretty knight sacrifice for passed pawns on both wings finished the job.

Hikaru Nakamura managed to obtain counterplay by pushing his h-pawn in a Sämisch King's Indian against Viswanathan Anand. This led to dynamic equality and a repetition.

Vladimir Kramnik sacrificed a pawn in an unusual manner against Sergey Karjakin. This led to a simplified position with queen and rook each, where White had the better structure, but this wasn't enough to make the diference.

Magnus Carlsen retained a space advantage against Ian Nepomniachtchi, but the Russian played a neat combination for perpetual check.

In Vassily Ivanchuk-Boris Gelfand, Black liberated his position with ...c5, but White was always a shade more active. Gelfand solved his problems with a surprising piece sacrifice which enabled him to double on the seventh thus forcing a draw.

Here is a summary of the eighth round games:

The table after the eighth round:

Details of the earlier games:

The first round:

The second round:

The third round:

The fourth round:

The fifth round:

The sixth round:

The seventh round:

More information from the official site:

http://www.russiachess.org/

Live games from 2pm local time

12 noon Paris, Madrid

11 am London

6am New York

3am Los Angeles

10pm Sydney