France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has moved to the top of the FIDE Candidates Tournament standings ©FIDE/Twitter

France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has moved to the top of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Candidates Tournament standings after beating home player Ian Nepomniachtchi in Russian city Yekaterinburg today.

Vachier-Lagrave has joined Nepomniachtchi on 4.5 points, but is ahead on tiebreaks after winning today's round seven game at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

The United States' Fabiano Caruana, The Netherlands’ Anish Giri, China’s Wang Hao and Russia’s Alexander Grischuk occupy third place to sixth place, respectively, on 3.5 points.

Today saw Caruana draw with Wang and Giri draw with Grischuk.

China’s Ding Liren and Russia’s Kirill Alekseenko complete the top eight on 2.5 points, having played out a draw today.

Matches are due to continue tomorrow.

The final round of games is scheduled for April 3.

Participants are competing for the largest amount of money ever at a FIDE Candidates Tournament, with the prize pot standing at €500,000 (£460,000/$543,000).

The tournament will decide who faces Norway's Magnus Carlsen at the World Chess Championship later this year.

It is one of the few events taking place amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has largely decimated the sporting calendar.