Candidates Rd10: Kramnik's downfall

The FIDE Candidates Tournament is taking place in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia). The first round will start on Thursday, March 13 at 3 p.m. local time, the final round is on Sunday, March 30, 2014. The event is a double round robin (14 rounds). The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 and 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. The tournament will determine the challenger who will face the reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen in a title match later this year. The prize fund is 600,000 Euros (= US $832,000), the first place 135,000 and last (8th) place 25,000 Euros.

Round Ten

Daniel King shows the games Anand vs Mamedyarov and Kramnik vs Svidler

Photographers Nastya Karlovich and Eteri Kublashvili

Karjakin, Sergey ½-½ Andreikin, Dmitry
Karjakin's approach to the Paulsen, which was basically trade all the pieces, didn't promise him any advantage and the game quickly reached an equal endgame. It wasn't a dead draw yet, ideas still existed for both sides, but neither tried particularly hard.

Andreikin is practically out of contention and expressed he is just
playing to enjoy himself in the last rounds in Khanty-Mansiysk

Aronian, Levon ½-½ Topalov, Veselin
Topalov used an ultra-solid line in the ...a6 Slav that is quickly catching on as it was employed successfully in the Tromso World Cup of last year quite a number of times. Aronian obtained a minimal edge in the position but he was slowly pushed back, and at some point it was even Topalov the only one that could claim an advantage. However Aronian defended well enough and it is hard to say that either side was in any real danger of losing at any given point.

A fighting draw

Topalov expressed his disappointment with his play in this tournament, claiming to have spoiled many good positions. He added that he wasn't planning on playing the Najdorf originally against Anand, but he didn't see a good choice considering the tournament situation.

Kramnik, Vladimir 0-1 Svidler, Peter

Kramnik played a great game only to spoil it with an elementary blunder

Svidler looking surprised at White's 4.d5!?

Basically out of contention now: Kramnik at -1

Anand, Viswanathan ½-½ Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
Anand repeats the h3 Najdorf that brought him a victory against Topalov. Mamedyarov was in the mood for a fight, declining a repetition shortly after the opening ended. However Anand's position was solid and if anything it was White that held a very small edge. The Azeri player accepted a draw offer in a position where White was a smidgeon better and one in which Anand saw no reason to risk.

Mamedyarov tried, but it's never easy with Black

Anand could try to draw the rest of his games and
realistically win the tournament without issues

Anand is four rounds away from challenging Carlsen for the World Championship rematch. However, nothing is set in stone - blunders are still quite possible and his lead might dissipate. Join American grandmasters Alejandro Ramirez and Irina Krush in tomorrow's playchess.com live commentary of the 11th round in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Games of the round:

Click on drop-down menu for all games

Standings after ten rounds

Photos from the official website

Schedule and results

Note: the games are played at 3 PM local time, which is 10 a.m. CET (Paris) and 5 a.m. EST (New York). Click here if you are uncertain what that means for your local time.

Playchess commentary

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.