Fabiano Caruana was a convincing winner of the GRENKE Classic when he finished a point clear of World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Caruana survived a lost position against the World Champion and in the last round defeated another rival for first place, Nikita Vitiugov, with the black pieces. Caruana chose a surprising computer line in the Petroff he discovered after playing Grischuk in the Candidates. 5...Qd7 soon proved to be an inspired choice as Caruana took over the initiative and his opponent resigned on move 40.

Magnus Carlsen tried the Sicilian against Viswanathan Anand, he took about as many risks as sensible but never generated any winning chances for himself before the draw was agreed. The other games were drawn, Aronian and Bluebaum seemed happy to finish with a draw, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was in trouble for a while against Georg Meier and Hou Yifan must have been winning against Arkadij Naiditsch.

Final Round 9 standings: 1st Caruana 6.5pts 2nd Carlsen 5.5pts 3rd= Aronian, Vitiugov, Vachier-Lagrave 5pts 6th Bluebaum 4.5pts 7th= Anand, Hou Yifan, Naiditsch 3.5pts 10th Meier 3pts

Round 9 2pm BST Monday 9th April Anand draw Carlsen, Hou Yifan draw Naiditsch, Vachier-Lagrave draw Meier, Aronian draw Bluebaum Vitiugov 0-1 Caruana

GRENKE Chess Classic 2018 (9)

Mark Crowther (Mon Apr 9 21:51:00 2018)