The 14th and last round of the FIDE World Candidates Tournament 2016 was held today at the DI Telegraph in Moscow, Russia.
Sergey Karjakin of Russia emerged winner and qualified for the World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen!
In the most dramatic finish of the event Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana entered the final round with equal points and paired one against another! There was one more variable at play, owing to the tie-break rules, and Anand’s result was also important for the two leaders.
Caruana entered the Richter-Rauzer variation of the Sicilian defence as its unbalanced nature allowed him to try to play for a win with black pieces. Karjakin avoided the sharpest lines and proceeded into strategically even middlegame. Feeling some heat on the e4-pawn, white decided to throw it away in order to open up the files and diagonals for the heavy pieces. In the mutual time trouble Caruana allowed a mistake and Karjakin immediately pounced on the opportunity to sacrifice a rook for the strong attack.
Levon Aronian employed the Ragozin defence in the Queen’s Gambit Declined, opening up the center and sacrificing a pawn to activate the heavy pieces. Black’s compensation was sufficient and after many exchanges he took the material back. Draw was agreed on move 33.
Anish Giri and Veselin Topalov played one of the popular lines of the Catalan opening. The queens went off early and white tried to get something going on the kingside. Black was alert and successfully defended against all the threats. The game was drawn after moves repetition.
Another English opening was seen in the game between Peter Svidler and Viswanathan Anand. The former world champion was more cautious than in the previous rounds and patiently prepared the central break to equalise the position. The tension was resolved by massive exchanges and eventually the game was drawn on 35th move.
Round 14 results:
Svidler – Anand 1/2
Giri – Topalov 1/2
Nakamura – Aronian 1/2
Karjakin – Caruana 1-0
Final standings:
1. Sergey Karjakin – 8.5
2-3. Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana – 7.5
4-7. Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Peter Svidler and Hikaru Nakamura – 7.0
8. Veselin Topalov – 4.5
Photos by World Chess