1 Mar 2013

Caruana leads Zurich



The super-tournament at Zurich keeps showing great games without decisive results. Fabiano Caruana’s only win is still enough to lead the event with one round to go.

Boris Gelfand played with white against Viswanathan Anand. They signed a draw exactly on move 40.

The World Champion advanced his queenside pawns early in the game, and Gelfand responded naturally using them as targets. Anand gave up two pawns for the exchange and invaded on the second rank with his rook. The Israeli coordinated his knight and bishop to defend his passed pawn on the queenside, but Anand’s rook was too annoying. The players repeated moves and signed the draw when the time control had just passed.

Kramnik and Caruana battled in a very original position. The Russian, once again, played a sideline to avoid showing his home preparation. He attacked on the kingside and Caruana – just like Anand – sacrificed the exchange for two pawns in order to avoid getting his king in trouble. A difficult struggle took place on the early middlegame and the Italian eventually finished with the upper-hand. Vladimir Kramnik found a very interesting rook sacrifice to force a draw by repetition on move 47.

Tomorrow is the last round in Switzerland. 

Round 6 pairings:

Viswanathan Anand – Vladimir Kramnik
Fabiano Caruana – Boris Gelfand

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