In Moscow the Candidates Tournament to decide who challenges Magnus Carlsen for the next World Championship has reached the half-way stage and it is fair to say that highlights have been few. It is perhaps not surprising that with eight of the world’s best players fighting it out in a 14-round tournament with so much at stake there will not be many decisive results, especially in the first half. However, seven wins out of 28 matches is disappointing for the spectator with the result that the table looks a little congested apart from the unfortunate Veselin Topalov. Having lost three of his seven matches, he looks to be out of contention barring a miraculous recovery in the second half of the tournament,
Current standings
| 1= | Sergey Karjakin 4½/7 | 4. | Anish Giri 3½/7 |
| Lev Aronian 4½/7 | 6= | Hikaru Nakamura 3/7 | |
| 3. | Viswanathan Anand 4/7 | Peter Svidler 3/7 | |
| 4. | Fabiano Caruana 3½/7 | 8. | Veselin Topalov 2/7 |
Spectators looking for entertainment could do worse than watch games involving Vishy Anand. He has won two and lost one of his seven games hitherto and his swift victory over Peter Svidler is a good example of how a slight miscalculation at the highest level can result in the roof falling in very quickly.
White: Viswanathan Anad (2762) Black: Peter Svidler (2757)
Round 6 Moscow Candidates 2016