The 11th round of the FIDE World Candidates Tournament 2016 was held today at the DI Telegraph in Moscow, Russia. Anand and Caruana share the lead with 6,5/11 points each.
There has been another change on the top as Anand bounced back after yesterday’s setback and defeated the long-time leader Sergey Karjakin. The game started with a quiet line in the Anti-Berlin Ruy Lopez. The pieces were going off until the players were left with two roks each and opposite-coloured bishops. It appeared that black equalised the position, however white was holding the only open file with his rooks. Anand skillfully maneuvered and already before the time control assumed certain advantage. In the resulting ending black tried to set up a fortress, but white found a way to break through.
Fabiano Caruana missed a good chance to move into the sole lead. In the sharp English opening Veselin Topalov, playing white, sacrificed exchange for a pawn and compensation. At some point in the middlegame the things went wrong for the Bulgarian and black seized the initiative. It looked like black will break through, but somehow Caruana became obsessed with winning the f2-pawn. The time trouble didn’t help him either. Topalov found a brilliant idea to completely tie the opponent’s pieces and after a long thought Caruana offered a draw.
Round 11 results:
Aronian – Svidler 0-1
Topalov – Caruana 1/2
Anand – Karjakin 1-0
Giri – Nakamura 1/2
After eleven rounds of play Anand and Caruana are joint leaders with 6,5 points each. Karjakin is clear third with 6 points. There follow Aronian, Giri and Svidler (5,5), Nakamura (4,5) and Topalov with 4 points.
Round 12 games are on schedule for 25th March at 15:00 Moscow time:
Svidler – Giri
Nakamura – Anand
Karjakin – Topalov
Caruana – Aronian