London Chess Classic: Caruana draws first blood

Fabiano Caruana of the United States broke the deadlock in the London Chess Classic with a victory over Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the fourth round in London.

Fabiano Caruana (left) beat Sergey Karjakin to emerge as sole leader.

Finally, there was blood on the board.

Fabiano Caruana of the United States broke the deadlock in the London Chess Classic with a victory over Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the fourth round in London.

The first three rounds had failed to produce even a single decisive game. Despite Caruana’s victory, there was no change in the theme at the last stop of the Grand Chess Tour, as all the other four games were drawn.

And that left Caruana, who won in 42 moves of Sicilian Taimanov, as the sole leader with 2.5 points. Black did well to convert his one-pawn advantage to victory in a rook-and-minor-piece ending.

Viswanathan Anand and World No. 2 Levon Aronian of Armenia decided to peace sign after 31 moves in a Spanish Game.

The results (fourth round): Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2 drew with Levon Aronian (Arm) 2; Sergey Karjakin (Rus) 1.5 lost to Fabiano Caruana (US) 2.5; Hikaru Nakamura (US) 2 drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus) 2; So Wesly (US) 2 drew with Michael Adams (Eng) 2; Maxim Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) 2 drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 2.