Anand surges, Caruana survives as Candidates near the final turn
by GM Maurice Ashley
The leaderboard was shaken up in round nine of the Moscow Candidates when 5-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand broke the hearts of Armenian fans everywhere by defeating tournament co-leader Levon Aronian to leap into a tie for first place. The Indian superstar showed his incredible ability to rise to the occasion in important moments by winning a position that seemed no more than a smidgen better for him coming out of the opening.
His aggressive 38.Kg4, offering an asymmetrical exchange of pawns, immediately prompted a crucial error when Aronian played 38…Rxe4 39.Rxg7+ Kc8? (instead of the more tenacious 39…Kd8), condemning Black to a life of passivity in a vastly inferior rook ending. With effecient echnique becoming of a veteran who has been squeezing the life out of opponents at the highest level for over 20 years, Anand won the game in textbook fashion, giving him more wins than anyone else in the competition. The result places him atop the standings alongside the ever-solid Sergey Karjakin, who drew against a deflated Hikaru Nakamura to keep the Russian’s record in the event unblemished so far.
Trailing hotly on the heels of the two leaders, American Fabiano Caruana daringly sacrificed pawn after pawn with the Black pieces against the young Anish Giri only to suddenly find himself four pawns down with dubious counter-play straight out the opening. However, Giri, seeing multiple pieces poised to attack him from all directions, failed to find the cool 24.Ke1! when Black’s attack would have been stopped dead in its tracks. Instead, the Dutchman, who had previously drawn all eight of his games in the event, allowed Caruana, one of the pre-tournament favorites, to eventually win back three of the missing pawns and stage a tenacious defense as the game ended by threefold repetition after a whopping 96 moves and seven hours of play.
Tuesday is a rest day for the players, some of whom will be relishing the opportunity to regain strength for the coming battle, while others can’t wait for the tournament to finish fast enough. Realistically, there are only five players who seem to have a legitimate shot of winning the event, with no clear favorite among the bunch. It will take calm nerves, steely determination, and a voracious will to win to decide the eventual victor of the competition. For the challenger to Magnus Carlsen’s crown as king of the chess world, no one expects anything less.
