Karjakin beats Caruana in Round 12 to share the lead in Candidates Tournament 2018

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:

Caruana leads Candidates 2018 with 4 rounds to go

10 rounds down and 4 to go, and Fabiano Caruana leads the pack in the race to the right to challenge the world champion.

Candidates 2018 Final Ranking

RkSNoNameFEDRtgPtsTB1TB2TB3
14Caruana FabianoUSA278490557
27Mamedyarov ShakhriyarAZE280981.5354.75
32Karjakin SergeyRUS276380.5454.75
46Ding LirenCHN27697.50152.5
51Kramnik VladimirRUS28006.51341.5
68Grischuk AlexanderRUS27676.51244
75So WesleyUSA279960140.5
83Aronian LevonARM27944.50133

Is it gonna be Caruana vs. Carlsen in the world championship this year?

Replay all the games in Candidates Tournament 2018.

Round 8

As we move closer to the finish line, Fabiano Caruana still leads the Candidates. Will he be the next challenger?

Round 8 Results:
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar – Karjakin, Sergey ½-½
Grischuk, Alexander – Kramnik, Vladimir 1-0
Ding, Liren – Aronian, Levon ½-½
So, Wesley – Caruana, Fabiano ½-½

Here’s how Round 8 happened:[replay]

Round 8 Standings: 1st Caruana 5.5pts, 2nd Mamedyarov 5pts, 3rd Grischuk 4.5pts, 4th Ding Liren 4pts, 5th Kramnik 3.5pts, 6th Karjakin 3.5pts, 7th Wesley So 3pts, 8th Aronian 3pts.

Candidates 2018 Final Ranking

RkSNoNameFEDRtgPtsTB1TB2TB3
14Caruana FabianoUSA278490557
27Mamedyarov ShakhriyarAZE280981.5354.75
32Karjakin SergeyRUS276380.5454.75
46Ding LirenCHN27697.50152.5
51Kramnik VladimirRUS28006.51341.5
68Grischuk AlexanderRUS27676.51244
75So WesleyUSA279960140.5
83Aronian LevonARM27944.50133

Replay all the games in the Candidates.

Mamedyarov and So win in Round 6 Candidates Tournament 2018

Vladimir Kramnik may have started the Candidates Tournament 2018 exceptionally strong, as he scored 2.5 points in the first three games. Yet, he scored just 0.5 points in the 3, as he lost his Round 6 game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Mamedyarov then joins Caruana in the top of the standings.

Meanwhile, after losing his first 2 games followed by 3 draws, Wesley So finally won a game in this tournament, at the expense of Levon Aronian.

Replay Round 6 games below:[replay]

The rest of the games were draws:

Draws Abound Round 5 of Candidates Tournament 2018

Far from uneventful round, but they were all draws just the same. Levon Aronian even missed several winning lines in his drawn game against Alexander Grischuk.

Candidates Tournament 2018 Round 5 Results

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/candidates2018-r5-results.csv”]

Replay Round 5 games below:[replay]

Round 5 standings: 1st Caruana 3.5pts, 2nd Kramnik 3pts, 3rd Mamedyarov 3pts, 4th Aronian 2.5pts, 5th Grischuk 2.5pts, 6th Ding Liren 2.5pts, 7th Karjakin 1.5pts, 8th Wesley So 1.5pts.

Candidates 2018 Final Ranking

RkSNoNameFEDRtgPtsTB1TB2TB3
14Caruana FabianoUSA278490557
27Mamedyarov ShakhriyarAZE280981.5354.75
32Karjakin SergeyRUS276380.5454.75
46Ding LirenCHN27697.50152.5
51Kramnik VladimirRUS28006.51341.5
68Grischuk AlexanderRUS27676.51244
75So WesleyUSA279960140.5
83Aronian LevonARM27944.50133

Replay all Candidates Tournament 2018 games.

FIDE Candidates Tournament 2018 – Caruana beats Kramnik and grab the lead at Round 4

FIDE’s Candidates Tournament 2018 is an 8-player, 14-game, double round-robin tournament featuring the select top players of the world to compete against each other, the winner of which will claim the right to challenge the throne of the World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

Vladimir Kramnik may have taken sole lead by the end of Round 3, but Fabiano Caruana defeated him in Round 4 to grab the lead from the former.

Levon Aronian may have experienced a setback in Round 3 as he lost to Kramnik, but gained grounds as he defeated the former challenger, Sergey Karjakin, in Round 4.

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/candidates2018-r4-results.csv”]

See Round 4 games below:[replay]

Kramnik leads at the end of Round 3 – Candidates Tournament 2018

Vladimir Kramnik scored 2.5 points in 3 games to lead the Candidates Tournament 2018 at the end of 3 Rounds.

Candidates Tournament 2018 – Round 3 Results

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/candidates2018-r3-results.csv”]

World Champions Ranked by CAPS

Chess.com has recently developed a tool that evaluates the strength of play for any chess player, or the quality of moves of any chess game. They call it the Computer Aggregated Precision Score (or CAPS).

Essentially, what CAPS does is evaluate a player’s game (or set of games) and assess its moves for its accuracy against what the computers think are the best moves in each given position.

Now, since world champions of different eras have no way to prove their worth against each other, CAPS is a good way to evaluate and compare the quality of their games, and thus will give us a “rough estimate” of how well world champions will fare against each other should they face over the chessboard.

Indeed, Chess.com did just that.

Now, let’s find out how your favorite world champion fared using the CAPS system below:

CAPS World Champions

CAPS World Champions

What do you think? Do you agree with the CAPS system? Put your comments below.

Isle of Man International Chess Tournament 2016

Update: Check out this page for the latest news about: Chess.com Isle of Man International Chess Tournament 2016.

The Chess.com Isle of Man International Chess Tournament is happening next weekend, from Sat 1st to Sun 9th October 2016. The Masters section is a 138-player 9-round Swiss system of play.

Rate of play (Masters): 100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the remaining moves, with 30 seconds added per move from the start.

The top 20 participants in the Masters section follow:

[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/isle-of-man-2016.csv”]

Check out the rest of the Masters participants here.

Official website.

Update: Check out this page for the latest news about: Chess.com Isle of Man International Chess Tournament 2016.