TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
FIDE Candidates 2016 (4)
Karjakin takes the lead after defeating Anand in Candidates Round 4
Mark Crowther - Tuesday 15th March 2016
Sergey Karjakin beat Viswanathan Anand to move to 3/4 and the early outright lead in the FIDE Candidates in Moscow.
Karjakin played a quiet Reti System with 9.h4 being a new move. Anand's 10...f5 was an interesting but strategically risky response. It's hard to say where Anand went wrong but he gradually drifted into trouble step-by-step and by move 27 he was fighting for a draw and by move 40 Karjakin was winning. Anand only played a couple more moves before resigning. Karjakin has a huge amount of experience in these events, this is a very early stage of course but this could be his year.
Anand is very stable in this format. He didn't lose a game in the Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates two years ago, nor did he lose in Mexico City in 2009 in a World Championship tournament using the same format,. You have to go back to 2005 in San Luis when Morozevich beat him in round 7.
Peter Svidler has had a comfortable start to the Candidates with good positions and chances to press for a wins. Today again he got another edge out of the opening, this time against Levon Aronian. Svidler won a pawn but at the expense of his pawn structure and this wasn't enough to force a win and a draw was agreed on move 43.
Hikarua Nakamura and Anish Giri played out an explosive draw which probably contained a lot of preparation and finished in perpetual check.
Fabiano Caruana played a quiet Italian game against struggling Veselin Topalov. Topalov started to drift having achieved equality, most likely becoming over-ambitious. Starting with 34...fxe4?! and leading up to 37...Qe7? which was an outright blunder (37...Bxe4 was necessary but black was already worse). Caruana was winning at first time control (41.Rxf6! is a relatively straightforward win) but he lost much of his advantage over the next few moves and the draw was agreed in 52 moves. A big miss for Caruana.
Round 4 standings: Karjakin 3pts, Aronian 2.5pts, Giri, Svidler, Anand, Caruana 2pts, Nakamura 1.5pts, Topalov 1pt.
Round 5 pairings Wednesday 16th March 2016. Giri-Svidler, Anand-Nakamura, Topalov-Karjakin, Aronian-Caruana.
| FIDE Candidates 2016 Moscow (RUS), 10-30 iii 2016 | cat. XXII (2778) | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||||||||||
| 1. | Karjakin, Sergey | g | RUS | 2760 | * | * | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | 1 | . | . | . | 1 | . | . | . | 3 | 2968 |
| 2. | Aronian, Levon | g | ARM | 2786 | . | . | * | * | ½ | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | . | . | . | . | 1 | . | 2½ | 2868 |
| 3. | Giri, Anish | g | NED | 2793 | ½ | . | ½ | . | * | * | . | . | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | . | . | 2 | 2782 |
| 4. | Svidler, Peter | g | RUS | 2757 | ½ | . | ½ | . | . | . | * | * | . | . | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | 2 | 2779 |
| 5. | Anand, Viswanathan | g | IND | 2762 | 0 | . | ½ | . | . | . | . | . | * | * | ½ | . | . | . | 1 | . | 2 | 2780 |
| 6. | Caruana, Fabiano | g | USA | 2794 | . | . | . | . | ½ | . | . | . | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | . | ½ | . | 2 | 2781 |
| 7. | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2790 | 0 | . | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | . | . | ½ | . | * | * | . | . | 1½ | 2689 |
| 8. | Topalov, Veselin | g | BUL | 2780 | . | . | 0 | . | . | . | ½ | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | . | . | * | * | 1 | 2581 |
| Round 4 (March 15, 2016) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karjakin, Sergey | - Anand, Viswanathan | 1-0 | 43 | A06 | Zukertort Opening | |
| Svidler, Peter | - Aronian, Levon | ½-½ | 41 | A22 | English Opening | |
| Caruana, Fabiano | - Topalov, Veselin | ½-½ | 52 | C50 | Giuoco Piano | |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | - Giri, Anish | ½-½ | 32 | D45 | Anti-Meran Variations | |
