Thessaloniki Grand Prix Round 7
Gata Kamsky and Fabiano Caruana both won their games with the black pieces in the 7th round of the Thessaloniki Grand Prix to share the lead with 5 points.
Kamsky's victory was achieved at the expense of lowest seed Rustam Kasimdzhanov, while Caruana took advantage of a blunder from Alexander Morozevich (47. Nf1??) to win their game.
It was also a good day for the other American representative in the field, Hikaru Nakamura, who won his game with the overall Grand Prix leader Veselin Topalov.
Gata Kamsky defeated Rustam Kasimdzhanov
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Fabiano Caruana won his game with Alexander Morozevich
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Hikaru Nakamura scored a win against Veselin Topalov
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Peter Svidler
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Vassily Ivanchuk took refuge from his demons in a short draw with white
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The standings after 7 rounds
| Name | Fed | Elo | Pts |
| Kamsky, Gata | USA | 2741 | 5 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2774 | 5 |
| Dominguez Perez, Leinier | CUB | 2723 | 4½ |
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 2742 | 4 |
| Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2779 | 4 |
| Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2793 | 3½ |
| Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2760 | 3½ |
| Kasimdzhanov, Rustam | UZB | 2699 | 3 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2775 | 3 |
| Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2769 | 2½ |
| Bacrot, Etienne | FRA | 2725 | 2½ |
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2755 | 1½ |
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The schedule for the 2013 Thessaloniki Grand Prix
| 21st May 2013 | Arrival & Opening Ceremony |
| 22nd May 2013 | Round 1 |
| 23rd May 2013 | Round 2 |
| 24th May 2013 | Round 3 |
| 25th May 2013 | Round 4 |
| 26th May 2013 | Free Day |
| 27th May 2013 | Round 5 |
| 28th May 2013 | Round 6 |
| 29th May 2013 | Round 7 |
| 30th May 2013 | Round 8 |
| 31st May 2013 | Free Day |
| 1st June 2013 | Round 9 |
| 2nd June 2013 | Round 10 |
| 3rd June 2013 | Round 11 & Closing Ceremony |
| 4th June 2013 | Departure |
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The fourth Grand Prix of the 2012/13 series runs from 21 May - 4 June in Thessaloniki, Greece. The full pairings are available here.
The overall winner and runner-up of the 2012/13 Grand Prix series will qualify for the next Candidates Tournament, expected to be held in March 2014. The first three events were held in London, Tashkent and Zug. The current standings are shown here.
Each tournament is a single round-robin featuring 12 out of the 18 players in the Grand Prix, and each player competes in four of the six events. The best 3 scores of each player count towards their overall score. The official regulations for the 2012/13 FIDE Grand Prix can be found here.
All rounds start at 14:00 local time (11:00 UTC) except the final round which starts 2 hours earlier. The time control used is 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in 1 hour, then 15 minutes plus a 30 second increment after move 60.
Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich at the official website, which has live games, analysis and video.
Games via TWIC.
