Fabiano Caruana surged ahead after defeating overnight co-leader Viswanathan Anand from the white side of the English opening in the 10th round of the FIDE World Candidates Tournament in Moscow on Wednesday. Caruana was already out of preparation, but as he testified later, all his moves were natural and easy to find. A temporary bishop sacrifice allowed white to seize the initiative. Soon-after black made a mistake with the knight jump and white proceeded to convert the advantage into full point.
Sergey Karjakin and Anish Giri tested the very popular line in the Meran Slav defence. White didn't achieve much and the massive exchanges allowed black to push the liberating c6-c5. The game was drawn several moves later.
Peter Svidler and Hikaru Nakamura, as well as Levon Aronian and Veselin Topalov, also opened started with the English opening, following the same line up to move 9.
Svidler seized some space in the center, but black was on time to undermine it with c7-c6. White snatched a pawn as black was developing the counterplay. Instead of trying to hold onto the material, white allowed his opponent to force the perpetual check.
In his own game Aronian put some pressure on the opponent despite the many exchanges. However, Topalov was up to task and masterfully neutralised white's advantage before the time control. The game proceeded until all the possibilities were exhausted and was finally drawn on move 58.
Round 10 results:
Svidler - Nakamura 1/2
Karjakin - Giri 1/2
Caruana - Anand 1-0
Aronian - Topalov 1/2
After ten rounds of play Karjakin and Caruana are joint leaders with 6 points each. Aronian and Anand share third place with 5,5 points. There follow Giri (5), Svidler (4,5), Nakamura (4) and Topalov with 3,5 points.
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