Victorious Caruana regains lead ahead of final round

Fabiano Caruana regained his half-point lead with a clinical triumph over off-form Levon Aronian.

File Photo: Caruana regained his half-point lead in the 12th and penultimate round of the FIDE Candidates chess tournament here on Monday.

Fabiano Caruana regained his half-point lead with a clinical triumph over off-form Levon Aronian in the 12th and penultimate round of the FIDE Candidates chess tournament here on Monday.

After overnight joint-leader, Sergey Karjakin (7.5 points) opted for a quick draw with black pieces against Wesley So, Caruana (8) seized the opportunity to nose ahead following a 39-move victory.

Aronian, one of the pre-event favourites, has logged only 1.5 points in the last eight rounds!

Shakhiryar Mamedyarov (7.5), who like Caruana lost the previous round, won against Alexander Grischuk to join Karjakin in the second spot.

The results:

13th round: Fabiano Caruana (USA, 8) bt Levon Aronian (Arm, 4); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 7.5) bt Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 6.5); Wesley So (USA, 5.5) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 7.5); Ding Liren (Chn, 7) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 6).

Final-round pairings: Grischuk-Caruana; Kramnik-Mamedyarov; Karjakin-Liren; Aronian-So.