Candidates Tournament Round 11

Round 11 of the 2013 Candidates Tournament in London took place today, and with each passing round we get a little closer to establishing the name of the next challenger for the World Chess Championship.

Tournament leader Magnus Carlsen faced Alexander Grischuk and played the Gruenfeld, which provoked an extraordinary caveman-style attack with 5.h4 from Grischuk! Carlsen's defense involved grabbing the b1-h7 diagonal with 8...Bf5 to blunt any possible attack.  This proved to be effective and Grischuk could find nothing better than allowing a repetition after 23 moves.

Alexander Grischuk took the fight to leader Magnus Carlsen...

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...but the Norwegian was less ruffled than his hair might suggest

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Vladimir Kramnik had the white pieces against Teimour Radjabov and piled on the agony for the Azerbaijani by scoring another win.  Radjabov spent a lot of time trying to find an answer to Kramnik's play, leaving himself only 7 minutes for 14 moves.  Short of time, his pawn grab with 28...Qxa2 proved to be a blunder, allowing 33.Nxe7! losing the exchange and soon the game.

Teimour Radjabov ran into more trouble against Vladimir Kramnik

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The clash between Vassily Ivanchuk and Boris Gelfand was the first game to finish after the players reached a repetition after just 17 moves. 

No time trouble for Ivanchuk today...his game only lasted 17 moves

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The last game to finish was the encounter between Peter Svidler and Lev Aronian. Aronian started the round only ½ point behind the leader Magnus Carlsen, and Peter Svidler had fallen down the standings after a promising start to the tournament. However, today Svidler played well and had a slight advantage when Aronian seemed to self-destruct with the astonishing moves 22...g5 and 23...b5.  A modest Svidler said "I can definitely say I got a bit lucky today".

Svidler put a huge dent in Aronian's chances of winning the tournament

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So Magnus Carlsen still leads, but his closest pursuer is now Vladimir Kramnik who is just half a point behind.  Lev Aronian is a full point behind the leader.  Aronian has the white pieces against Kramnik in round 12 tomorrow, and a decisive result either way will probably end the tournament chances of the loser.

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The standings after 11 rounds

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The 2013 Candidates Tournament runs from 14 March - 2 April in London, with the winner earning the right to challenge current world champion Vishy Anand for the title.

The tournament is an 8-player double round-robin event and the venue is The IET at 2 Savoy Place on the banks of the river Thames. The total prize fund is €510,000 (approx 665,000 USD). 

All rounds start at 14:00 GMT, and the time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then an extra hour added for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes more with a 30 second increment to finish.

The official FIDE website coverage is at london2013.fide.com.