The previous winner of the Candidates tournament, Sergey Karjakin, may have been at the bottom of the standings by the end of Round 6 when he scored just 2 points out of 6 games, or a -2 win/loss record, but he came out strong after that, winning 4 of the next six games, including his Round 12 win against the then leader Fabiano Caruana.
In another match, Ding Liren finally broke his drawing streak with a win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Replay the Round 12 games below:[replay]
After this win, Karjakin joins Caruana in the lead:
Round 12 Standings:
1st Karjakin, Caruana 7pts;
3rd Mamedyarov, Ding Liren, Grischuk 6.5pts;
6th Kramnik 5.5pts;
7th Wesley So 5pts;
8th Aronian 4pts
Candidates 2018 Final Ranking
Rk | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 4 | Caruana Fabiano | USA | 2784 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 57 |
2 | 7 | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | AZE | 2809 | 8 | 1.5 | 3 | 54.75 |
3 | 2 | Karjakin Sergey | RUS | 2763 | 8 | 0.5 | 4 | 54.75 |
4 | 6 | Ding Liren | CHN | 2769 | 7.5 | 0 | 1 | 52.5 |
5 | 1 | Kramnik Vladimir | RUS | 2800 | 6.5 | 1 | 3 | 41.5 |
6 | 8 | Grischuk Alexander | RUS | 2767 | 6.5 | 1 | 2 | 44 |
7 | 5 | So Wesley | USA | 2799 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 40.5 |
8 | 3 | Aronian Levon | ARM | 2794 | 4.5 | 0 | 1 | 33 |
It’s indeed a come from behind for Karjakin. The question is, can he maintain the momentum up until the end? Two more rounds to go.