Candidates Chess Tournament: Anish Giri wins again, stays in title hunt

Anish Giri moved within half a point of leader Ian Nepomniachtchi after scoring a brilliant win over Ding Liren in the 11th round of Candidates chess tournament on Friday.

Continuing his fine form, Anish Giri scored a second victory in three rounds after stopping the Chinese No. 1 in just 29 moves to reach 6.5 points.

Anish Giri moved within half a point of leader Ian Nepomniachtchi after scoring a brilliant win over Ding Liren in the 11th round of Candidates chess tournament in Yekaterinburg, in Russia, on Friday.

Continuing his fine form, Giri scored a second victory in three rounds after stopping the Chinese No. 1 in just 29 moves to reach 6.5 points.

READ: Candidates Chess Tournament: Nepomniachtchi leads by a point

Fabiano Caruana and Maxime-Vachier Lagrave, who shared the second spot with Giri after 10 rounds, fell back. Nepomniachtchi did not give Caruana any chance of closing the gap and played flawlessly for a draw. Vachier lost to Alexander Grischuk and almost blew away his chances of winning the event.

With three rounds to go, Nepomniachtchi and Giri are involved in a close race to be the challenger to Magnus Carlsen in the World championship match, scheduled later this year.

Results (11th round) Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 7) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 6); Anish Giri (Ned, 6.5) bt Ding Liren (Chn, 4); Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 5.5) bt Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 5.5); Kirill Alekseenko (Rus, 4.5) drew with Wang Hao (Chn, 5).