There goes the conclusion of the Paris Grand Chess Tour 2018, the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2018. Right before the final round, Hikaru Nakamura only needed a draw to ultimately bag home the title. But it was not enough for him, as he even played and won his last round game against Fabiano Caruana.
Replay all the Paris rapid and blitz games.
As the second leg of Grand Chess Tour continues in Paris, Wesley So takes solo lead at the end of Day 2 — after 6 rapid rounds. This, after he defeated Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Grischuk and drew with Levon Aronian during the day.
Replay Day 2 games below:[replay]
[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/gtcpr_d2_ranking.csv”]
Replay all rapid games in Paris GCT 2018.
Official scoring after Round 6 rapid games:
The second leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2018, the Paris GCT 2018, kicked off just 4 days after Leuven. The format is still the same: 5 days, 9 rapid, and 18 blitz games. Vladimir Kramnik plays wildcard in Anish Giri‘s stead.
Day 1 was action-packed, as expected in rapid games. 7 out of the 15 games were decisive. Replay Day 1 games below:[replay]
[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/gtcpr_d1_ranking.csv”]
The official scoring system awards 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw. Thus, here’s the official scores after Day 1 of three rapid games:
Stay tuned for more chess action from Paris.
Watch the coverage here:
To totally avoid the tiebreaks, Fabiano Caruana went for a win, and win he did, with the black pieces at that, against Alexander Grischuk in the final round of the Candidates 2018. It was the only decisive game of the round. [replay]
Thus, Caruana is the clear winner of the tournament being a full point ahead over the second place. He will be the challenger to the World Championship match in November this year in London against the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen.
| 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 |
Replay all the games in the tournament here.
Fabiano Caruana regained his +3 win-loss margin when he defeated Levon Aronian in the penultimate round of the Candidates Tournament 2018. As a result, he also regained the sole lead leading to the final round. Moreover, this is Aronian’s 6th loss in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won his Round 13 game against Alexander Grischuk, thus joining Sergey Karjakin in second place. Karjakin drew against Wesley So.
Karjakin and Mamedyarov are still within striking distance of the sole leader, Caruana.
[csvtable file=”http://chesshive.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/candidates2018-r13-results.csv”]
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:
10 rounds down and 4 to go, and Fabiano Caruana leads the pack in the race to the right to challenge the world champion.
| 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 |
Is it gonna be Caruana vs. Carlsen in the world championship this year?
Replay all the games in Candidates Tournament 2018.