Candidates R13: It's Karjakin or Caruana!

The 2016 FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament is a 14-round event, which determines the next Challenger to Magnus Carlsen's title, is taking place in Moscow from March 10–30. Eight players, including six of the World's top-ten rated grandmasters. The time control is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move one. The guaranteed prize fund is US $420,000.

Candidates round thirteen – Express report

Daniel King on Round 13: Caruana vs Svidler and Aronian vs Karjakin

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Note that ChessBase is doing daily one-hour roundup shows after each round

You can follow the games live with video commentary on the official tournament page

Fabiano Caruana – Peter Svidler 0.5-0.5

Peter Svidler: The only guy in the tournament who is playing the Ruy Lopez more often than the Berlin!

Svidler equalized after the opening without any particular difficulties. But an impatient break in the centre with d5 gave Caruana a clear advantage. Caruana misplayed it and Peter held the edge, which was once again handed over to the American due to a tactical oversight. Caruana won a pawn in the endgame and kept grinding. Svidler at the right moment gave up his bishop for all of white’s pawns to take the game into rook+bishop vs rook endgame. On the 102 move Svidler went wrong and handed over a winning Philidor position to Caruana.  Fabiano still had 14 moves left to win and with best play he could have mated Svidler or won his rook on the 50th move. “I have studied it many times but never seem to remember how to win this endgame!”, was Fabiano’s statement after the game. The game ended in a draw and a heartbreak of some sorts for Caruana.

The moment when Peter Svidler played 102...Ka4 and realized he lost the draw ...

... only to have it returned by Caruana on move 111

Caruana was keeping an eye on the Aronian-Karjakin game. In the 14th round he will have to do something similar
 with the Svidler-Anand encounter (check the end of the article to understand the tiebreak situation)

Levon Aronian – Sergey Karjakin 0.5-0.5

What are the others doing?! Levon Aronian checks out games on the big screen

It was a beautifully played game by Levon. Through nimble manoeuvres he was able to obtain a clearly superior position. However, the position was so complicated and filled with so many possibilities that it was impossible for Aronian to calculate everything in the limited time that he had. As is usual with Sergey, he just didn’t give up. He fought on and on, finding compensation for his missing piece and defended that inferior position to hold the draw. “It is like you are in the process of making a beautiful painting and then you just throw the brush away!” was Aronian’s way of describing how the game went for him. Sergey on the other hand was pretty much happy with the outcome.

Levon Aronian in the press conference, clearly disappointed after the 101-move draw

His amazing defence is the reason why he is at the top right now

Veselin Topalov – Hikaru Nakamura 0-1

Topalov - Nakamura was the battle between the 7th and 8th placed players where the American came out on top

Topalov opened the game with 1.d4 hoping for an interesting King’s Indian by Nakamura. But the American was in a solid mood and played the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Right out of the opening Hikaru equalized and also got a slight edge. But it wasn’t sufficient to play ambitiously for a win. However, Topalov’s poor form in the tournament continued and he couldn’t keep the balance in the game. He let Nakmura win a pawn and also double his rooks on the seventh rank. The rest way just easy! Nakamura can now fight for the top spots in the tournament. As for Topalov, as he said after the game, “I just want this tournament to end!”

Hikaru has been looking like a completely new player in the last two rounds

"Playing solidly with black is the biggest lesson I have learnt at this event"

Viswanathan Anand – Anish Giri 0.5-0.5

After doing it on previous two occasions – winning with the white pieces, could Anand do it once again? To beat Anish Giri in this tournament is close to an impossible task. It was a must-win game for Anand if he had to have any chances of winning this tournament. Vishy chose the Guioco Piano and the players repeated the first eight moves from the game Anand versus Aronian from the ninth round of this tournament. On the ninth move Anand unleashed the novelty – 9.Bg5. Vishy had a chance to gain an opening advantage, but he made an inaccurate move and suddenly the initiative was with black. Anish played well, slowly but steadily increasing the pressure. Anish, who is usually very solid and careful decided to let things spin out of control today. He sacrificed his bishop for two pawns and unclear compensation. For the first time in the game it seemed as if Anand had the chance to win. But the position was extremely complicated and the time on the clock was ticking down. Vishy made a few inferior moves and ended up in an inferior position. But the Indian kept finding important resources and after 52 moves the game ended in a draw.

The two discussed for a long time after the game

In the press conference Anish said of a line Anand dictated: "I saw that during the game!"

Anand: "I show him a line and he says he saw it during the game..."
Very entertaining press conference, well worth watching.

Watch the 18-minute press conference

Anish: "Are you messing with me?!!"

Standings after thirteen rounds

So what are the options for the final round tomorrow? Here are the pairings:

Tie break scenarios: Either Karjakin or Caruana will win, Anand cannot

The first tiebreak is head to head encounter and the second one is most number of wins.

And this is how the tiebreak scenario works – we confirmed everything with the Chief Arbiter and his assistants. Karjakin and Caruana play against each other in the last round and only one amongst the two have a chance to win the tournament. The one who wins the game becomes the champion and the Challenger.

However, in case of a draw it becomes complicated. Both Sergey and Fabiano reach 8.0/13. If Anand draws or loses to Svidler, then Sergey Karjakin is the champion because head to head is equal between him and Caruana (1-1), but Sergey has more wins, which is the second tiebreak.

However: if Vishy wins against Svidler then things change completely, because all three would be on 8.0/13. Then the three players are a group in head to head encounters, and Caruana has 2.5/4 (1.5 against Vishy and 1 point against Karjakin) while Karjakin has 2/4 (1 each against Vishy and Caruana). Then Caruana wins the tournament.

Who do you think will challenge Magnus Carlsen?

Pairings and results

Roundup broadcasts

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Roundup Commentary Schedule

• Official tournament site + live broadcast
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