Chess

[DarthFed]

Caruana is blowing this, talk about overthinking things here. This would be a huge miss if he doesn't convert.

Now Aronian is on the defensive. Of course the way Svidler has been playing he will be happy with a draw.

 

[DarthFed]

Not going to be fun for Sergey now. White can't allow rooks to be exchanged anytime soon if he wants to win this but black's position is really tied up. With someone like Anand you figure he wins this.

 

[DarthFed]

Aronian definitely in trouble here. A loss would pretty much end his hopes of winning the tournament.

 

[DarthFed]

I think Caruana is going to end up drawing this, g5 was just horrific. Seeing ghosts there

 

[Federberg]

Yup, that was a howler from Fabiano. None the remaining games look drawish at all

 

[Federberg]

Aronian resigns. About time, he was toast

 

[DarthFed]

Aronian went down and Giri just screwed up with Nxg7 and will likely draw at best. This is a fun but bizarre round of games so far. They are both virtually eliminated now.

 

[DarthFed]

Giri must have missed Rg3 Rg5 somehow. Shit happens after 4+ hours of thinking...

 

[DarthFed]

And that's the end of Karjakin. Pretty insane round of games. Caruana and Anand lead and Sergey is one point back so he still has a chance. The rest are toast.

 

[Federberg]

Superb win by Vishy. My admiration for him just keeps going up and up. I wouldn't have a problem with a Capuana - Carlsen final. I suspect that's what the organisers are praying for right about now. Although not too many have noticed that Magnus is increasingly comfortable playing him

 

[DarthFed]

Vishy is impressive and he has had a lot of decisive games. His first loss wasn't that bad of a game, Karjakin played outstanding, 2nd loss was pretty bad but he has 4 wins and the next best has two.

 

[Federberg]

Yup agreed. He's the one guy who's trying to do something. I honestly think that based on the rounds so far, he's the most deserving winner of this thing. Svidler - not strong enough, terrible endgame/ converting strong positions; Nakamura & Topalov - almost comic; Giri - doesn't seem to understand the stakes; Caruana & Aronian - surprisingly flakey; Karjakin - not quite good enough it seems, certainly not a composure issue for him. Vishy - pure rock and roll. You can forgive the 2nd round loss, that was a Carlsenesque game by Sergey

 

[DarthFed]

Agreed, Caruana was impressive and then absolutely dreadful in the same game. Svidler and Giri have also had a couple like that though with Giri it was just one bad miss today. Nice game beforehand but that shows what one bad move can do.

 

[Federberg]

Yup. I guess I'm a bit hard on Giri, because I find his snarkiness a little annoying. Start winning a bit more then it's ok to be cocky imho

 

[Federberg]

Yippee! Finally a Sicilian and a najdorf no less. Is Toppy going for it today?

 

[DarthFed]

^ Definitely should be exciting especially since Karjakin will be fairly desperate for a win here. Getting Topalov as white gives him a good opportunity to get right back to +2 and possibly share the lead again after this round. Svidler is white vs. Giri so if that game is decisive the winner at least has some small chance left. But if it's a draw, which is the overwhelmingly likely result, they both are done.

 

[DarthFed]

Naka-Anand game looks incredibly sharp. Not familiar with this opening at all as white's knight is trapped but obviously there is some compensation in the form of a strong attack. Let's see if Naka can play spoiler here, he does surprisingly have an excellent record vs. Anand.

 

[DarthFed]

Looks like Aronian just dropped a pawn with dxc3. Not sure how much compensation he has after Bxe5 here aside from just having bishop vs. knight. After the dust has settled Naka has a clearly better position than Anand here.

 

[DarthFed]

Not liking this for Anand right now. A simple quiet looking Qc2 and black's position is dangerous. That king is open for bizz!

 

[DarthFed]

Aronian has some strong play on the queenside. I still don't think dxc3 was justified. He will be fighting for a draw here.