Carlsen and Giri win to share the lead after Tata Steel Masters Round 12 - 12
Anish Giri beat Baskaran Adhiban in an unusual Benoni. Giri was criticial of his opponent's opening play but said he let him off the hook with 8.Nbd2 which wasn't the best. Giri said he overlooked 11...c4 after which he didn't have much. 16.Bg5 did pose problems 16...Nf6 (16...Bf6 was expected by Giri) might still have been OK but after 17...Qb6 (maybe 17...a6 instead) black's position was already becoming extermely difficult. Adhiban hung in for a while but after 33...Nd3? Giri quickly forced a win.
Magnus Carlsen ground out a win in a Rook and Bishops of opposite colours endgame against Maxim Matlakov. Carlsen wasn't that happy out of the opening but had a long lasting small edge to play with, he also got a long way ahead on the clock and candidly admitted that with so little on the board he also needed time pressure. It's unclear quite when Matlakov was finally lost but Carlsen won in 62 moves.
Vladimir Kramnik was the other Masters Group winner and was pleased to defeat Fabiano Caruana, normally a tricky opponent for him. Kramnik thought 14...Nfg4 the start of Caruana's difficulties and 29...Qf6?! (29...Ra1+) was probably the losing move after which Kramnik brought home the full point.
Peter Svidler was a bit better against Sergey Karjakin but only drew. The games Hou Yifan vs Wei Yi and Viswanathan Anand vs Wesley So also finished in draws.
Santosh Vidit's defeat of Olga Girya gave him a half point lead in the Challengers over Anton Korobov with a round to go.
Round 12 Standings: 1st= Giri, Carlsen 8.5pts 3rd Mamedyarov 8.0 4th= Kramnik, Anand 7.5pts 6th= Karjakin, Wesley So 7pts 8th Svidler 5.5pts 9th Wei Yi 5pts 10th= Jones, Caruana, Matlakov 4.5pts 13th Adhiban 3.5pts 14th Hou Yifan 2.5pts
Round 13 pairings: 11am GMT: Wesley So-Hou Yifan, Mamedyarov-Anand, Matlakov-Jones, Karjakin-Carlsen, Caruana-Svidler, Adhiban-Kramnik, Wei Yi-Giri