Riga grand swiss

[Hans Jung]

Rd5 Firoujza and MVL battled to a draw.

Shirov took off Saric! Home court advantage?

[Connor Gherasim]

and now jobava wins in 14 moves. funny considering he was dead lost in about 10 moves a few rounds ago

[Hans Jung]

Rd6 Jobava is one of my favorite tacticians - tricky and dynamic. But he has trouble defending resourcefully and with certain strategic positions. So he often wins big and loses big.
https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2021...Moussard_Jules

[Hans Jung]

Rd6 Shirov - Firoujza and Najer - Caruana both very interesting. The price you pay for leading in a tournament of this caliber is you get to play Firoujza and Caruana. However Najer must be happy with his position. The computer evaluates +2 for him coming out of the opening.

Najer failed to put Caruana off in an advantageous endgame.
Congratulations to Shirov - always attacking and holding off Firoujza. Incredible complex lines to calculate in the middlegame.

[Hans Jung]

Rd6 https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2021...torov_Nodirbek Killer shot - last move of the game. Also unusual. You always have to be alert to tactics.

[Hans Jung]

Rd6 https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2021..._Foreest_Lucas Caught off guard. Nice finish.

[Hans Jung]

Dubov a clear piece down after 16 (sacrifice) and continuous pressure. Finally converts 25 moves later in an amazing endgame. What a game! (Dubov-Saric rd6)

[Hans Jung]

https://chess-results.com/tnr587230....&art=4&flag=30 Standings after round 6 (halfway). Five tied for first, fifteen half a point back.

[Hans Jung]

https://en.chessbase.com/post/grand-...hlights-part-1 First half highlights by Canada's Joshua Doknjas!

[Hans Jung]

Rd 7 Niemann held all the positional trumps but Sindarov in an attempt to get play walked into a tactical minefield. Nice bame by Niemann.

https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2021...redke_Alexandr Interesting game. Predke sacrifices a piece in order to get dangerous passed pawns.

Another great game between Caruana and Sevian (referring to recent US Champs). Sevian sacrifices 3 pawns to get the initiative but there is no more than a draw at the end

Harikrishna finds 27.Nf7 and Nd8! and black's position becomes a knightmare.

[Hans Jung]

Shirov held the draw with active play.

Firoujza is the only one to win amongst the leaders and is now in clear first after seven rounds.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 7 Beautiful two knights and queen play by Maghsoodloo and forcing a lovely zugzwang at the end!

Jeffery Xiong had a slight advantage, avoided trading the last pair of rooks, and then the endgame became a horror show (he lost badly)

[Marc Andre Beaudry]

Alireza is something else, let.s hope it continues like that for him. The tournament is very tight and many people can qualify. I'm hoping Maxime or Fabiano can qualify but some luck will be required. Alexis Shirov has a great tournament for a guy near 50 years old. What an amazing player . Fire on the board like his great compatriot Tal !

[Hans Jung]

Rd8 Beautiful knight play by Eljanov. Both knights led the action.

In the Saric game the kings knight led the action. Nf6-h5-f4-e2-d4 and could have gone to c2 and then e3 with an advanced outpost but Black judged that his position was already winning.

In the Gukesh - Yakubboev game the pawn storm with g5 works. White would love to play exf4 but ...e4! and the pieces will be overloaded on the E -file.
The culprit was 21.f4 which had to be calculated carefully (where white would have realized he was worse and played more cautiously). The resulting pawnstorm is just winning for Black, all the tactics work despite White's desperation.

Another successful defence by Shirov against MVL!

Jeffery Xiong wins with the zigzag pawn formation! Nice finish (threatening Bxf2+, Ne3+ and checkmate)

[Hans Jung]

Rd8 Firoujza wins again. Lovely queen sacrifice this time. Great game to play over. Black was helpless.