Chess - The Scotsman 25/03/13

The Candidates Tournament in London is shaping up into a two-horse race between the top two seeds, world No 1 Magnus Carlsen, and No 2 Levon Aronian, who made a break from the pack with the only wins in round six, which further extended their lead.

Yet again, Carlsen effortlessly outplayed his opponent, Russia’s Peter Svidler, in almost vintage Karpovian fashion – as can be seen in today’s game. Norwegian superstar Carlsen didn’t seem to do anything remarkable, but such is his aura in the game today that we eerily witnessed yet another speedy demise of a super-Grandmaster and six-time Russian champion.

But Aronian had to rely on Lady Luck smiling on him for the full point, as his opponent, Teimour Radjabov, blundered big-time from today’s diagram. The Azeri wildcard only needed to play 53 Qe2 Rd8 54 Rc1 with easy equality – but instead, he proved that super-Grandmasters are indeed human after all, by playing the club-player blunder of 53 Nxe5?? Qxe4+ 54 Nf3 Nf4+ and White resigned. What Radjabov had miscalculated was that 54 Kf1 Qxe5 55 Bh6+ Kf6! protected the queen.

Going into the second rest day of the tournament – to decide who will challenge World Champion Viswanathan Anand for his title, later in the year – rating rivals Carlsen and Aronian both have impressive +3 scores and an equally impressive 1.5 point lead over their nearest rivals.

Standings: 1-2. Carlsen, Aronian, 4.5/6; 3-4. Kramnik, Svidler, 3; 5-6. Grischuk, Radjabov, 2.5; 7-8. Gelfand, Ivanchuk, 2.

P Svidler - M Carlsen

FIDE Candidates, (6)

Ruy Lopez

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0–0 Be7 6 d3 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 a4 b4 9 Nbd2 0–0 10 a5 Be6 11 Nc4 Rb8 12 c3 bxc3 13 bxc3 h6 14 Re1 Qc8 15 Bc2 Rd8 16 Qe2 Bf8 17 Ne3 d5 18 exd5 Nxd5 19 Nxd5 Rxd5 20 h3 Bf5 21 Rd1 Qe6 22 Bb1 Qd7 23 Be3 e4 24 Nd4 Nxd4 25 Bxd4 exd3 26 Bxd3 Bxd3 27 Rxd3 c5 28 Be5 Rxd3 29 Bxb8 c4 30 Be5 Bc5 31 Rb1 Qd5 32 Rb8+ Kh7 33 Qh5 Qe4 34 Rb2 Rd5 35 Re2 Qb1+ 36 Kh2 f6 0–1