Round 7 was a major turning point at the WR Chess Masters in Düsseldorf. Levon Aronian, who had a full-point lead and seemed to be cruising to victory, lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi, while Dommaraju Gukesh got the better of Andrey Esipenko.
Thus, Gukesh and Aronian are now sharing the lead with 4½ points each. Wesley So and Nepomniachtchi stand a half point back with two rounds to go, Chessbase reports.
With two rounds to go, these results left Aronian and Gukesh sharing first place on 4½ points each, only a half point ahead of the dangerous duo of Nepomniachtchi and Wesley So. Curiously, all the six remaining players are sharing 5th to 10th place with 3 points each.
In round 8, Gukesh will play white against Jan-Krzysztof Duda, while Aronian will have the black pieces against Esipenko. And finally, in a seemingly scripted tournament conclusion, the current co-leaders will face each other in Saturday’s ninth round.
