THE CANDIDATES closing to an end

The Candidates': Round 11, 12 and Final Predictions

• Robert_New_Alekhine
 
• | Mar 27, 2016 at 7:36 AM
 
• | Posted in: Robert_New_Alekhine's Chess Addiction
• | 144 reads
 
• | 4 comments

The Candidates' Tournament, held in Moscow, is nearing the end. The winner of the tournament will get the right to play the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, in a world championship match.

The eight formidable players are Karjakin, Caruana, Anand, Giri, Aronian, Svidler, Nakamura, and Topalov. Karjakin and Caruana are currently leading with 7/12, with two rounds to go!

CURRENT STANDINGS (as of Round 12):

World Championship Candidates Tournament 

Sergey Karjakin 7/12 (+3 -1 =8) [view games] Fabiano Caruana 7/12 (+2 -0 =10) [view games] Viswanathan Anand 6.5/12 (+4 -3 =5) [view games] Anish Giri 6/12 (+0 -0 =12) [view games] Peter Svidler 6/12 (+1 -1 =10) [view games] Levon Aronian 6/12 (+2 -2 =8) [view games] Hikaru Nakamura 5.5/12 (+2 -3 =7) [view games] Veselin Topalov 4/12 (+0 -4 =8) [view games]

Clearly Nakamura and Topalov are not in good form, while Karjakin and Anand surprised us all by bulldozing their way to the top.

Caruana had a slow start but played strongly in the middle rounds, acheiving 2 wins.

Karjakin is probably a favorite to win this tournament. He has a higher tiebreak (more wins), and he gets to play with the white color against Caruana in Round 14.

Let's see how the exciting games in Rounds 11 and 12 affected the standings:

Round 11:

Anand vs. Karjakin 1-0

Aronian vs. Svidler 0-1

Giri vs. Nakamura 1/2-1/2

Topalov vs. Caruana 12-1/2

Just like Round 11, Round 12 also had two decisive games:

Round 12:

Caruana vs. Aronian 1/2-1/2

Karjakin vs. Topalov 1-0

Nakamura vs. Anand 1-0

Svidler vs. Giri 1/2-1/2

Now...WorldChess has threatened legal action against anyone who discusses the games live. I protest! For the sake of chess fans I think I'll risk it...

None of the games have finished yet. Anand vs. Giri looks approximately equal, computer gives it at -0.18 but I personally like white.

Oh yes, about the computer! In a game Giri vs. Caruana from the 2016 Candidates, the computer recommended a line where white would get a one pawn advantage. Actually, white would have more than an extra pawn--he would have a checkmate in one, which was however beyond the threshold of the computer!

Aronian vs. Karjakin is a position in which we can safely say "dynamic equality".

Caruana vs. Svidler--oh my, Caruana has a 0.75 advantage! He does however have only 24 minutes for 19 moves, but as a fan of his I like that 7 and that 5!

Topalov vs. Nakamura--you guessed, it's going to be drawn.

If Caruana manages to convert and all the other results are as predicted...he's leading by half a point with one round to go. He will only need a draw against Karjakin to win! 

That concludes my report. You can watch the games live at either chessbomb.com or at worldchess.com or at chessdom.com OR at chess24.com. Good luck!