Chess (#1194)

The very last game to finish in the last round of the Candidates determined the challenger to Magnus Carlsen. Sergey Karjakin wins that honour when he beat Fabiano Caruana. It did not come down to tiebreaks (although Karjakin had the better tiebreak score anyway).

Karjakin scored 8.5 with four wins and one loss. He held his nerves and displayed his mental strength, by scoring 2.5/ 3 in the last three rounds, despite suffering a loss to Viswanathan Anand in Rd 11. In the last round, he found a brilliant mating attack.

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Karjakin will be an interesting opponent for Carlsen. They are the same age. The Ukrainian-turned-Russian is a universal player with no apparent preferences. He's well-prepared and there will be major human resources backing him since he could bring the title back "home" to Mother Russia.

Caruana scored 7.5, suffering his only loss in the last round. He played sharp, enterprising chess throughout but he also got a number of dubious positions. The italian-American GM tied for second-third with Anand (7.5), who had a roller-coaster ride with four wins and three losses.

Both Caruana and Anand will be disappointed. Caruana came close to winning in Rd 13 versus Peter Svidler and that would have obviated the need to take risks in the last round. However, the 23-year-old will surely get more chances to challenge for the title.

On the other hand, Moscow may signal the end of Anand's serious title ambitions. The 46-year-old cannot be written off yet, but the young guns should take over. Anand suffered a grievous loss to Nakamura in Rd 12, which effectively ended his chances here. He played several superb games including wonderful endgame wins against Topalov, Karjakin and Aronian. But his preparation with black was vulnerable and he lost far too often.

The next four, Anish Giri, Levon Aronian, Svidler and Hikaru Nakamura all tied on 50 per cent with 7 points each. But Aronian shared the lead for a while while Nakamura was trailing till the end. Giri was the only unbeaten player with 14 draws! He played positively. But somehow decisive results eluded him. Svdiler was well-prepared and achieved many good positions without quite finding finishes. The really terrible result was that of former world champion, Veselin Topalov (4.5).

At The Diagram , White to Play, (White: Karjakin Vs Black: Caruana, Candidates 2016), Karjakin found what he called a "not very difficult sacrifice" 37.Rxd5! exd5 38.Qxd5 Qc7 39.Qf5! The threat is Qh7 and it can't be satisfactorily defended. Black played the desperate 39...Rf7 40.Bxf7 Qe5 41.Rd7+ Kf8 42.Rd8+! (1-0) Mate is forced with 42.Rd8+ Kxf7 43.Qh7+ Ke6 44.Qd7# A resounding win in a high-tension last round.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player