Vassily Ivanchuk offered his h-pawn, but Nisipeanu reacted by sacrificing a pawn of his own. A complex struggle ensued where, despite simplification, the Romanian had enough play as he stopped Ivanchuk castling into safety. There was nothing better for White than a repetition at the end.
Teimour Radjabov had superior development and thus some pressure after the opening. This led to him obtaining an edge with bishop against knight in an open middlegame. Carlsen avoided the exchange of queens and cunningly organized a piece sacrifice to obtain a perpetual check.
Nakamura hinted at an aggressive inclination with an early h2-h4, but the game became rather closed and despite much 'toing and froing' neither side managed to make any real progress.
The eighth round summary:
It's a long time since Teimour Radjabov won a game! Recently in Kazan, against Kramnik, all classical and rapid games were drawn and here the young Azerbaijani has seven draws and a loss so far.
The table after eight rounds is as follows:
The earlier rounds were as follows.
Nakamura hit back in the second round.
In the third round, only the bottom seed Nisipeanu won.
Only draws in the fourth round.
Before the rest day the two youngest players were victorious.
Karjakin won again in round six.
Round seven was another good day for Carlsen.
The official site gives more information, plus the possibility of following the games live
http://www.turneulregilor.com/
The games begin at 3.30 pm local time.
The remaining games will be played on the 20th to 21st of June.
