Sigeman round 7

Cheparinov leading, Hillarp Persson half a point away

Cheparinov with his manager

Round 7 results:

GM Parimarjan Negi - GM Tiger Hillarp Persson 1/2 - 1/2

GM Erwin l'Ami - GM Ivan Cheparinov 1/2 - 1/2

GM Vassilios Kotronias - IM Emil Hermansson 1 - 0

GM Jonny Hector - IM Pontus Carlsson 0 - 1

GM Jan Timman - IM Emanuel Berg 1 - 0

An exciting day at Sigeman & Co! The chess fans saw very open games with unpredictable end. It all started with the game between l'Ami and Cheparinov. The young Bulgarian proved that he has collected much experience being second to Veselin Topalov. In a sharp line he chose the disbalanced game. Cheparinov combined two plans against Kings Indian Bayonet attack - a5 and f5. This has either confused l'Ami or he wanted to try novelty 13. Nd2 (13. Bf1 was played before; 13. Ng5 looks more active than Nd2). After strong reply 13...c5, White's action on the Queenside was stopped. In addition, Black's King was reaching the dominant square d4, and in the following complications, Cheparinov grabbed the initiative. l'Ami defended well and after several precise moves he held Cheparinov to a draw.

Another sharp game was produced by Hermansson and Kotronias. In the middle of the game most of the heavy pieces were on the board and the kings were wide open for attacks. Hermansson could not hold the pressure and a double check 34. Nf6 brought the game to a quick end with Kotronias winning a queen. This left Hermansson at the bottom of the table, while Kotronias' situation did not change much and he stays in the middle of the table.

The youngest GM, Parimarjan Negi, tried a nice attack on the queen side against Hillarp Persson. Negi seemed to have chances as at one point of the game he was two pawns up. However, the the position evolved into opposite color bishops endgame and the game ended in a draw.

Jan Timman keeps on using coffee as a weapon and defeated Berg in only 28 moves. Thus, Hillarp Persson and Cheparinov will probably be the only players with chances to grab the title.
Pontus Carlsson sank Jonny Hector with a mating threat in 31 moves. Carlsson gets the only win with black for the day, while Hector obviously cannot adjust to this year's competition.

The standigs after round 7:

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