Thanks all. Seems like a good time to tell you the bad news.
Anand drew today against Giri. Giri went for it with a sacrifice, which made a draw the least likely result at one point. If it worked, he'd win. If it didn't, Anand would make the material advantage tell. It looked like Anand might nick it but Giri defended without too much difficulty in the end and he forced a draw.
Indian Shreevesy spoke to Giri after the game. A couple of minutes about the game before a question reminiscent of Dennis Pennis at 2:25:
I'm sure he didn't mean it quite like that, but it was funny. Giri, in fairness, has had some lively games but he has drawn all 13 and I'd be amazed if he doesn't have a quick draw with Topalov in the last round.
Aronian can't believe he didn't beat Karjakin but the Russian makes a living defending when behind and he somehow held firm, after 101 moves:
All eyes on Caruana.
The American had the better of his game against Peter Svidler. Svidler wriggled and managed to get into a theoretically drawn endgame (King, Rook and Bishop v King and Rook), but one which is chronically difficult to defend over the board against one of the best players in the world.
There's a rule in chess that, if no pawn is moved and no piece is captured for 50 moves (that's 50 each), the game is drawn. As Svidler wriggled, he got closer to the 50 move rule. He needed to get to move 118 to survive.
He plays at 102, King to a4 and immediately realises he's blundered.
As it turns out, although it should lose, Caruana wasn't able to convert it quickly enough to evade the 50 move rule. He breathed a sigh of relief at move 111, when he worked it out.
So the three main players all drew. Somehow.
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Karjakin and Caruana play each other, so a draw in their game tomorrow and a win from Anand leave the three of them tied on 8 points. Chessbase.com has worked it out for my pretty little head:
This is how the tiebreak scenario works – we confirmed everything with the Chief Arbiter and his assistants. Karjakin and Caruana play against each other and only one amongst the two have a chance to win. The one who wins the game becomes the champion and the Challenger.
However, in case of a draw it becomes complicated. Both Sergey and Fabiano reach 8.0/13. If Anand draws or loses to Svidler, then Sergey Karjakin is the champion because head to head is equal between him and Caruana, but Sergey has more wins, which is the second tiebreak.
However: if Vishy wins against Svidler then things change completely, because all three would be on 8.0/13. Then the three players are a group in head to head encounters, and Caruana has 2.5/4 (1.5 against Vishy and 1 point against Sergey) while Karjakin has 2/4 (1 each against Vishy and Caruana). Then Caruana wins the tournamentIn plain English, Anand cannot win the Candidates tournament. Our goose is cooked. That is, unless the bookies will pay out in the event of a three way tied score. I'd be very surprised if they did that, though, because the purpose of this tournament is to determine the one person who goes on to play for the World Title.
Not to be, but Anand has exceeded a lot of expectations in this tournament and, whatever happens tomorrow, we were close to a nice score.
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