Wijk aan Zee 2018, Round 11: The Leaders All Draw; Anand Closes to Within Half a Point
It wasn't an especially good day for the top four. The three leaders all drew - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Magnus Carlsen against each other, and Anish Giri somewhat shakily against Fabiano Caruana. Vladimir Kramnik started the day half a point behind, but was thoroughly outplayed by Sergey Karjakin (who thereby caught up with him) to fall another half a point back.
This let Viswanathan Anand come closer; his convincing win over Hou Yifan brought him within half a point of the leading troika, and Wesley So's win over Gawain Jones put him into a tie with Kramnik and Karjakin. (The other two games were short draws: Adhiban-Wei Yi and Matlakov-Svidler.) (The games, with my notes to the first four games mentioned above, are here.)
Two rounds remain, and first place is still up in the air. Here's what we have to look forward to on Saturday, in round 12:
- Hou Yifan (2) - Wei Yi (4.5)
- Giri (7.5) - Adhiban (3.5)
- Kramnik (6.5) - Caruana (4.5)
- Svidler (5) - Karjakin (6.5)
- Carlsen (7.5) - Matlakov (4.5)
- Jones (4) - Mamedyarov (7.5)
- Anand (7) - So (6.5)
All three leaders have pairings that look very promising on paper, while the pairings for those in the chase pack look considerably less congenial. We shall see!