Anish Giri surprised second seed Fabiano Caruana in the day’s final round to catch up with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the lead in Group ‘B’ after five rounds of $150,000 Chessable Masters on Sunday.
The leaders were at three points, half-a-point ahead of Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Taimour Radjabov was staring at elimination with 1.5 points at the halfway stage of the league.
At the completion of the double round-robin league, the top four players from Group A and Group B will advance to the quarterfinals.
Giri played to his reputation and drew the first four rounds before nailing Caruana. An unbeaten Vachier’s lone victory, too, came against Caruana.
If Ding Liren was the only one who drew all five games, Caruana proved the most eventful performer, winning against Nepomniachtchi and Radjabov and lost to the leaders, following a draw in the campaign-opener.
Nepomniatchtchi, the player with the most flamboyant style of play in this group, started brightly with a win over Radjabov but lost the next to Caruana. He drew the remaining rounds.
The results:
Group B (fifth round): Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2.5) lost to Anish Giri (Ned, 3); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 2.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 3); Ding Liren (Chn, 2.5) drew with Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 1.5); (fourth round): Lagrave drew with Liren; Giri drew with Nepomniachtchi; Radjabov lost to Caruana; (third round): Lagrave bt Caruana; Nepomniachtchi drew with Liren; Giri drew with Radjabov; (second round): Caruana bt Nepomniachtchi; Radjabov drew with Lagrave; Liren drew with Giri; (first round): Caruana drew with Liren; Nepomniachtchi bt Radjabov; Lagrave drew with Giri.
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