Much as we’d anticipated earlier the Candidates Tournament was wide open with a lot of solid chess remaining after the first three rounds as it’s a long road ahead. Aronian pulled off a great win to bounce back from his loss to Kramnik in round three to win an emphatic and a very original game in round 4 against Sergey Karjakin. In Karjakin’s own words at the press conference after round 4- “After Nc5 I felt like Levon in the game against Vladimir after …Rg8. Instead of fighting for advantage you are clearly worse with white in ten minutes and it’s just a terrible feeling.” Kramnik fell to Caruana when he lost control of the position in the endgame after blowing away chances to draw earlier in the game in equal position.
Round five was a quiet round with all sides calling it truce after some hard fought games in the first four rounds. This was immediately followed by another explosive round 6 with Kramnik and Aronian going down to some solid chess by their opponents. Kramnik again lost his way in the endgame after turning down an implied draw offer by Mamedyarov by repeating the moves. Wesley So bounced right back into the tournament with an impressive win over Levon Aronian in the Anti-Marshall System of the Italian game. Wesley played very practical and solid positional chess to slowly turn on the screws on Levon and shutting him out in the end. It’s painful to watch Levon have a meltdown at this event yet again. Much as a solid player that he is his form has always been of concern at the Candidates Tournament.
Looking at the field and the performances the contenders have yet to show the form, poise and mettle to be able to put up a solid fight, much less dethrone the World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Much as talented he is anyone facing Magnus in the Championship match in November this year will have a daunting task ahead after this grueling tournament.
Here are the two games below with an indepth look at Wesley’s win versus Levon as it forms a very instructive study in positional piece play and making the most of positional advantages. Mamedyarov’s win versus Kramnik was straight forward for Mamedyarov and it helps taking a close look at the final trick Vlad calculated and deployed. But Mamedyarov had seen it all and finished off the game coolly.
Enjoy some pics and the games below!
Wesley So played a brilliant game today. -Photo: Maria Emilianova
Putting the squeeze on Levon with some solid positional play. -Photo: Maria Emilianova
Kramnik lost his way today. -Photo: Maria Emilianova
