Fide Canidates Tournament- Round 13 and 12

The 13th round of the FIDE World Candidates Tournament 2016 was held today at the DI Telegraph in Moscow, Russia.Karjakin and Caruana enter the last round with 7,5/13 points each.

Despite playing white pieces Veselin Topalov run into early trouble against Hikaru Nakamura. The American weakened opponent's pawn structure and penetrated with both rooks to the second rank. Nearing the time control black won a pawn and then imposed the decisive blow with the knight. White resigned on move 40.

Anish Giri confirmed Nakamura's evaluation that he is in great shape, easily equalising with black against the winner of previous Candidates Tournament Viswanathan Anand. Then when the opportunity presented itself, Giri sacrificed a bishop for attack, and after many transformations around the time control black emerged with R+2P vs B+N. White, however, pinned the black pieces to f7-pawn and it was not possible to make progress for either side. Draw agreed on move 52.

Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin played a popular line of the English Opening - The Sicilian Dragon Reversed. Big complications ensued when Karjakin grabbed the a3-pawn. The resulting ending saw black holding B+2P vs B+N. For more than 50 moves Aronian trying to make something out of the position, but black's far-advanced a-pawn was a too big of distraction. The game was drawn after 101 moves of play.

Peter Svidler handled the black side of the Ruy Lopez pretty well and even obtained slight advantage in the game against Fabiano Caruana. But a mistake on move 34 put black on defensive for the rest of the day. Transposing to the R+B ending white managed to win a pawn. Svidler decided it was best to eliminate all the pawns and defend the notorious R+B vs R ending. The Russian demonstrated the proper 2nd-rank defence to hold the draw after seven and a half hours and 116 moves of play.

Round 13 results:
Caruana - Svidler 1/2
Aronian - Karjakin 1/2
Topalov - Nakamura 0-1
Anand - Giri 1/2

After thirteen rounds of play Karjakin and Caruana are joint leaders with 7,5 points each. Anand is clear third with 7 points. There follow Aronian, Giri, Svidler and Nakamura (6,5) and Topalov with 4 points.

The last round games are on schedule for 28th March at 15:00 Moscow time:
Svidler - Anand
Giri - Topalov
Nakamura - Aronian
Karjakin - Caruana

Tie-breaks (Important): If Caruana, Karjakin and Anand share the first place - Caruana qualifies on the best tie-break. If Caruana and Karjakin share the first place - Karjakin qualifies.

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Round 12

The 12th round of the FIDE World Candidates Tournament 2016 was held today at the DI Telegraph in Moscow, Russia.There has been another change on the top and now Karjakin and Caruana share the lead with 7/12 points each.

Viswanathan Anand run directly into Hikaru Nakamura's preparation. The English opening is very often employed in this event and Nakamura came up with some clever lines to lure Anand into making an early mistake. Black fell behind in development and the threats along the a1-h8 diagonal were simply too strong. Anand resigned after only 26 moves and two hours of play.

So far Anand has won four games with white and lost three with black pieces.

Sergey Karjakin quickly recovered after the yesterday's setback and won a nice attacking game against Veselin Topalov. The former world champion defended with the Naidorf Sicilian and white responded with the sharp English attack. Black placed his knight on the dominant e5-square, but white missed the most concrete 15.h6. Only two moves later black erred with 17...Rc8, when 17...Bf6 was the best option to hold the position together. Karjakin grabbed the exchange and proceeded to convert the advantage.

The game between Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian started as a quiet Ruy Lopez but black didn't wait long before sacrificing a pawn to unbalance the position. White rushed to return the material and reach a roughly balanced ending with heavy pieces on the board. At one point before the time control white allowed the beautiful tactical shot 38...Rxd3, but black passed it. The next opportunity presented itself when Caruana played 47.Ke3, after which black obtained certain initiative. This, however, was not sufficient for a win, and the game was drawn on move 67.

Anish Giri was well prepared to meet Peter Svidler's favorite opening setup and even obtained slight advantage with black pieces. Following the massive exchanges before the first time control black emerged pawn up, but white still had counterplay with two pairs of rooks on the board. Giri pressed hard for a win, but Svidler defended well and the game was drawn in the seventh hour of play.

Round 12 results:
Svidler - Giri 1/2
Nakamura - Anand 1-0
Karjakin - Topalov 1-0
Caruana - Aronian 1/2

After twelve rounds of play Karjakin and Caruana are joint leaders with 7 points each. Anand is clear third with 6,5 points. There follow Aronian, Giri and Svidler (6), Nakamura (5,5) and Topalov with 4 points.

Saturday is a rest day. Round 13 games are on schedule for 27th March at 15:00 Moscow time:
Caruana - Svidler
Aronian - Karjakin
Topalov - Nakamura
Anand - Giri