The Candidates is heading for a nailbiting finish. After 11 rounds, any of the six players could still win the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen
The Candidates in Moscow is almost at midpoint. Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian share the lead with 4 points from 6 rounds. Viswanathan Anand (3.5) is in third. Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri are on 3 each, with Peter Svidler (2.5), Veselin Topalov and Hikaru Nakamura (2 each) trailing. Everybody has a theoretical chance with 8 rounds left.Karjakin has shown excellent form, picking off a nice technical win against Anand, capitalising on a big error by Nakamura and fighting hard to hold an inferior position against Caruana. Aronian has been more sloppy and more fortunate with two big strokes of luck; Topalov blundered two pawns against him and Nakamura made an unfortunate touched-move error in a drawn endgame.Anand's form has been uncertain. He won two good games, pulling off a good attack against Svidler and a study-like endgame against Topalov. But he also drifted into a loss versus Karjakin with a series of sub-optimal moves. Caruana and Giri have not quite been able to impose th
The prize fund of €420,000 is secondary, since the winner becomes the challenger in a title match
Mariya Muzychuk, reigning champion and local star, faces heavy favourite, Hou Yifan
Anand plays for Baden Baden while Harikrishna represents Solingen