Aronian Joins Anand, Karjakin In Lead

Aronian Joins Anand, Karjakin In Lead
By Arvind Aaron

Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin and Viswanathan Anand are leading the FIDE Candidates Tournament jointly with 2/3 in Moscow on March 13.

The champion of this 8-player event will challenge Norway’s Magnus Carlsen in New York in November 2016.  Monday is a rest day in this €420,000 prize money contest that will run until March 29. Anand faces Karjakin with black on Tuesday.  Unable to show any opening advantage, Anand drew Caruana after reaching a level rook and pawn ending.

Aronian beat Topalov after the Bulgarian started to drift from move 12 onwards. Aronian went on to score in 50 moves.  The results (round 3): Nakamura (USA) 1 drew Svidler (Rus) 1½; Giri (Ned) 1½ drew Karjakin (Rus) 2; Anand (Ind) 2 drew Caruana (USA) 1½; Topalov (Bul) 0.5 lost to Aronian (Arm) 2.