The Week in Chess

Fabiano Caruana beat Levon Aronian to lead the Candidates tournament in Berlin going into the final round. Caruana's tie-breaks are mostly inferior to his rivals so he really needed to win against a struggling Aronian with white to keep his chances alive. Now his rivals will surely have to win to overtake him although his chances of winning with black against Alexander Grischuk may be quite small. Most likely Caruana's best strategy is just have make sure of the draw and cross his fingers his rivals don't win.

Aronian was doing fine for quite some time, 10...d5 was a fighting continuation but 18...Kh7 (18...Nf6=) seemed in retrospect a step in the wrong direction. 19.Bc2 was best rather than 19.Kg2 but Caruana played it when given the chance to play it the following move. Caruana had a very large advantage after 23...Qe6 but he played 24.Bd3 instead of 24.Nxg6 allowing Aronian a huge counterattack after sacrificing a piece. White was still winning but it was difficult to find the best, 29.N1e3 was a mistake according to computers because Aronian had either 31. or 32. Nxb4 with the idea to follow up with Rd4 with a massive attack. "Here I don't have any ideas." Aronian said in the press conference. Instead after 31...e4 Caruana was clearly winning and he made no mistake.

Wesley So played solidly against Sergey Karjakin as white. 13.b4 was a new interesting idea but after 13...Qf5 Queens came off and a draw was always likely.

Another game that seemed destined for a draw after the opening was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov against Alexander Grischuk, except a draw wasn't good for either player particularly. Grischuk should have brought the game to a close with various moves but 33...Kh7 turned out to be an unfortunate decision, it was still equal but after 34...Nxb5? (34...Nf5=) Mamedyarov had a winning attack which he played forcefully.

Ding Liren was perhaps the tiniest bit better against Vladimir Kramnik in a complex English but Kramnik's provocative but reasonably sound 18...g5 provoked an error with 19.h3 after which Kramnik quickly won material. Ding maintained his undefeated record with a fine defensive performance but this result virtually rules him out of the title hunt although in the final round if he beats Karjakin, Kramnik draws with Mamedyarov and Grischuk beats Caruana he will win the tournament.

Round 13 Standings: 1st Caruana 8pts, 2nd Mamedyarov 7.5pts, 3rd Karjakin 7.5pts, 4th Ding Liren 7pts, 5th Grischuk 6.5pts, 6th Kramnik 6pts, 7th Wesley So 5.5pts, 8th Aronian 4pts

Round 14 Tuesday 27th March 2pm GMT: Grischuk-Caruana, Aronian-Wesley So, Karjakin-Ding Liren, Kramnik-Mamedyarov.