Moscow Candidates - Second Week

Since the previous intermediate report, Moscow Candidates - First Week, five more rounds have been played in the 2016 Candidates Tournament. The standings after ten rounds, with four rounds still to be played, are shown in the following crosstable from the official site.

Only individual games from the second half are marked on the crosstable, while the totals include results from the first half. The first four players, all with a plus score, are most likely to emerge as the eventual challenger for a match with World Champion Carlsen. GM Giri, who has played ten draws in ten games, has an outside chance, but the other three players are effectively relegated to the role of spoiler.

Looking at the games still to be player, the first three players listed -- GMs Caruana, Karjakin, and Aronian -- must still play each other. The pairings for those games, as well as the remaining game for former World Champion Anand, show one critical game per round. [The single decisive game from the first half is marked with '(*)'.]

Rd.11 Anand - Karjakin (*)
Rd.12 Caruana - Aronian
Rd.13 Aronian - Karjakin
Rd.14 Karjakin - Caruana

The tournament is wide open, the players are tired, and a single move might very well determine the challenger to Carlsen.