 "Chess (#1193)")
The Candidates is heading for a nailbiting finish. After 11 rounds, any of the six players could still win the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen. Fabiano Caruana and Viswanathan Anand share the lead with 6.5 each. Sergey Karjakin is lying third with 6. Levon Aronian, Anish Giri and Peter Svidler have 5.5. Caruana and Giri are unbeaten (Giri has 11 draws). Only Hikaru Nakamura (4.5) and Veselin Topalov (4). In the event of a tiebreak Caruana has the edge against Anand because he has the better head-to-head.
Nerves are now clearly visible with unforced errors in the past few rounds and a higher than normal number of errors from all participants. This is explicable in terms of the mounting tension. Aronian for instance, has gone down to successive defeats from good positions. That have pushed him off the leaderboard. Giri has blundered badly to draw from clearly won positions against Caruana and Nakamura.
Read more from our special coverage on "CHESS"
In practice, the three leaders must be favoured. But there are three rounds to go and several key matches are set up for that last stretch, including a crucial Karjakin versus Caruana encounter scheduled for the last round. Aronian and Svidler both play two of the three leaders in the last three rounds. So either of them could come from behind if they can manage a winning streak.
Caruana has played with a very positive attitude. But he has also had both good and bad luck in equal measure. He missed clear wins in both games with Topalov and held a big edge that he could not covert against Karjakin. But Giri, Svidler and Nakamura all held winning positions against him and so, probably, did Aronian.
Anand has had a high decision ratio with four wins and two losses. He has either played very well or he has played very badly. He has won two well calculated attacks (Topalov, Svidler) and two superb endgames (Aronian, Karjakin). But he has also been comprehensively outplayed in his losses to Caruana and Karjakin.
Karjakin had played near-flawlessly until his 11th round loss against Anand when he failed to hold a tough endgame. The Ukrainian-turned-Russian GM is known for cool nerves and fighting qualities. He needs to outscore Anand and Caruana since his tie-breaks are bad. Beating Caruana in the final round would be ideal for him.
The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Anand vs Black: Svidler, Candidates 2016) saw white attack with 18.Rxe4! This exploits the old Greek Gift idea of 18. - Bxe4 19.Bxe4 Ra7 20.Bxh7+ Kxh7 21.Ng5 winning.
The game continued 18. Rxe4 Nb3 19.Rxa8 Bxa8 20.Ng5! Nxc1 21. Qh5 h6?! 22.Qxf7+ Kh8 23.Rg4! Qa5!? 24. h4! (1-0)- The only move. defending - Qe1+ 25. Kh2 Ne2 26. Nh3!.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
