Month: March 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:

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

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 Candidates.

We are halfway through the Candidates Tournament 2018, and Fabiano Caruana takes solo lead after he defeated Levon Aronian in the 7th round.

Wesley So was holding a drawing position towards the endgame against Sergey Karjakin, until he ran into time trouble and blundered on move 35 with 35.. Ke8. Karjakin was with a winning position when So lost on time.

The other two matches ended in draws.[replay]

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:

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

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 Candidates Tournament 2018 games.