Continuing his good run of form at the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2016, Viswanathan Anand registered his 3rd victory of the event by overcoming Levon Aronian with the White pieces. Courtesy of this important victory, Anand has moved on to 5.5/9, joining Sergey Karjakin at the top of the table.
Anand’s victory was a fine example of virtuoso strategic play coupled with excellent practical decisions. To begin with, Anand surprised one and all when he opted for the Closed Guico Piano instead of his favourite Ruy Lopez. Indeed, he emerged with the more pleasant position out of the opening. In the middlegame, Anand kept improving his pieces, soon reaching a better endgame.
It was on the 38th move, during Aronian’s acute time-trouble, that Anand opted for an interesting practical decision in the form of 38.Kg4. In reply, Aronian was unable to find the best continuation, allowing Anand to obtain serious winning chances. Finally, the Armenian GM made a huge blunder on move 57 which helped Anand wrap up the matters rather quickly.
Meanwhile, Anish Giri failed to capitalize on a significantly better position against Fabiano Caruana. The Giri-Caruana battle finally ended in a 96-move draw. The remaining games, viz. Topalov-Svidler and Nakamura-Karjakin, were also drawn.