With four rounds to go in the elite Sinquefield Cup chess tournament, Viswanathan Anand needs to strike back to salvage some pride in the strongest event of the year.
When the competition resumes with the sixth round after Friday's rest day, Anand plays black against Anish Giri. In the first two rounds, Anand lost with black and since then, has managed draws in three games. Giri, unbeaten in the joint third spot, can prove a tough customer for Anand whose confidence took a beating last week.
In the following three rounds, Anand plays white against Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen in the seventh and ninth rounds, respectively, and in between meets Levon Aronian with black pieces.
At the moment, Carlsen looks on a hot trail after making light of his first round loss to Veselin Topalov. Fittingly, Carlsen and fellow joint-leader Aronian clash in Round Six.
Aronian has finally regained his best form after more than a year and a half. Topalov, winner of the first leg in June in Norway, can also be expected to stake his claims with some positive intent in the remaining four rounds.
Giri, defending champion Fabiano Caruana and the unpredictable Hikaru Nakamura are capable of upsetting the calculations of those ahead in the title-race.
Standings (after five rounds): 1-2. Magnus Carlsen (Nor), Levon Aronian (Arm) 3.5 points each; 3-4. Veselin Topalov (Bul), Anish Giri (Ned) 3 each; 5-6. Hikaru Nakamura (US), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) 2.5 each; 7-8. Fabiano Caruana (US), Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 2 each; 9-10. Viswanathan Anand and So Wesley (US) 1.5 each.
Sixth round pairings: Giri-Anand; Grischuk-Caruana, Lagrave-Topalov, So-Nakamura, Aronian-Carlsen.
