Chess

[DarthFed]

Svidler allowed the draw vs. Naka when it looked like he could've played on with something like Bc3.

 

[DarthFed]

Aronian and Caruana have decent edges on position against Topalov and Anand. Both are big games for the leaderboard

 

[DarthFed]

Anand looks to be in serious trouble. Well played by Caruana putting him under a lot of pressure this game. Not done yet but looks like a win for white.

 

[DarthFed]

I'd be surprised if Topalov holds that position. It'd be uncomfortable for better defensive players with better endgame skills...

 

[Federberg]

Yup. It's an exciting game. Levon looks like he could bounce back right away. Re: Sergey, it looks like Fabiano is doing him a favour

 

[DarthFed]

^ Yes but if Caruana wins he replaces Anand and will be tied with Karjakin and maybe Aronian after this round.

Time is a factor here, 9 minutes left for Caruana to make 8 moves

 

[Federberg]

that's a fair point, and he won't have head to head issues with Sergey, so this is probably worse for him!

 

[DarthFed]

In a way yes because Anand would be extra desperate to win tomorrow, otherwise he'd have little chance to win the tournament.

 

[DarthFed]

Ne4 and Nxc3 were just bad moves by Anand. His position was bad beforehand but that didn't help matters.

 

[DarthFed]

Aronian has absolutely no edge now, wow. That turned around quickly after he allowed rooks to come off the board.

 

[DarthFed]

Anand resigned after Rf1 which is kind of surprising. Is the final position lost? Definitely but it isn't a total slam dunk yet, weirder things have happened even at the top level and given the magnitude of the tournament it seemed a little early to resign there.

 

[Federberg]

Anand resigned after Rf1 which is kind of surprising. Is the final position lost? Definitely but it isn't a total slam dunk yet, weirder things have happened even at the top level and given the magnitude of the tournament it seemed a little early to resign there.

perhaps he was just disgusted with himself. Surprising lack of fighting spirit there!

 

[Federberg]

Aronian has absolutely no edge now, wow. That turned around quickly after he allowed rooks to come off the board.

reminds me of Vishy's comments a few days ago. Letting the rooks go off would drastically reduce his advantage against Aronian. It's amusing that Aronian didn't take that comment on board. None of these guys are impressing me! Caruana is doing a Kramnik with a late surge!

 

[DarthFed]

^ Yep. 30. Bc3 was worthless, I liked Qf3 there, even though it offers an exchange of queens that would've put black under more pressure.

 

[Federberg]

Toppy is way more active, but I don't see how he's going to break through in this one

 

[Federberg]

I see what you mean re: that Bc3 move. Levon, Levon.. what are you doing? Sometimes he just drifts, very strange for such a huge talent

 

[Federberg]

It's interesting how the engine evals have changed after Toppy's Qe2 move. I must confess that locking up the queenside with b5, wouldn't really have appealed to me either as it becomes harder to work out a plan to break through. But now the evals are saying zero...

 

[DarthFed]

Yes this should be a draw barring something bizarre like a kamikaze style attack.

Queens off the board. Those bishops can dance to eternity now!

 

[Federberg]

And there we have it, a draw. Caruana sitting pretty now. Looking at the final rounds he's in good shape to win this thing actually...

Round 11, Thursday 24 March 2016
Aronian Levon Svidler Peter
Topalov Veselin Caruana Fabiano
Anand Viswanathan Karjakin Sergey
Giri Anish Nakamura Hikaru

Round 12, Friday 25 March 2016
Svidler Peter Giri Anish
Nakamura Hikaru Anand Viswanathan
Karjakin Sergey Topalov Veselin
Caruana Fabiano Aronian Levon

Rest day, Saturday 26 March 2016

Round 13, Sunday 27 March 2016
Caruana Fabiano Svidler Peter
Aronian Levon Karjakin Sergey
Topalov Veselin Nakamura Hikaru
Anand Viswanathan Giri Anish

Round 14, Monday 28 March 2016
Svidler Peter Anand Viswanathan
Giri Anish Topalov Veselin
Nakamura Hikaru Aronian Levon
Karjakin Sergey Caruana Fabiano

 

[DarthFed]

Karjakin, Aronian and Caruana all play each other one more time. Awesome! The other notable match is tomorrow with Vishy as white vs. Karjakin. This should be an exciting end to the tournament.