Mamedyarov Sacrifices His Way To Victory, So Escapes

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took Round 9 by storm, getting his first win of the tournament by employing his opponent's own idea against him. If you're going to borrow, borrow from the best! Mamedyarov was the only winner of the round, although Ian Nepomniachtchi came very close to taking down second placed Wesley So. Without further ado, here is Mamedyarov's exchange sacrifice masterpiece annotated by Alireza Firouzja and Nick Barton of Chess.com.

Now you can compare it to Anand's exchange sacrifice against Garry Kasparov in the 1995 (unofficial) World Championship match.

Here are all the other games from the round, with minimal analysis by Firouzja/Barton.

Here are, once again, the 'live' GCT standings:

Thanks for reading!