Candidates chess: Caruana stays in lead

Fabiano Caruana easily drew with Sergey Karjakin in 31 moves to maintain his half-a-point lead.

Fabiano Caruana possesses 3.5 points after five rounds.

Riding on a high a day after scoring over Vladimir Kramnik in an amazing battle, USA’s Fabiano Caruana (3.5 points) easily drew with another Russian Sergey Karjakin in 31 moves and maintained his half-a-point lead following the fifth round of FIDE Candidates chess tournament here on Thursday.

Since the other three boards also ended in draws, there was no change in the standings. Levon Aronian blew away an opportunity to win against Alexander Grischuk.

This eight-player double-round competition will decide the challenger to World champion Magnus Carlsen. The World championship match is scheduled to be held in London in November this year.

• Fabiano Caruana (USA, 3.5) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 1.5); Wesley So (USA, 1) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3); Ding Liren (Chn, 2.5) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 3); Levon Aronian (Arm, 2.5) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2.5).