Anish Giri was back into the title-race after a clinical victory over Wang Hao for a share of the second spot behind leader Ian Nepomniachtchi in the ninth round of Candidates chess tournament in Yekaterinburg in Russia, on Tuesday.
The victory for Giri, the only winner of the day, was described as World champion Magnus Carlsen as a “very, very, very good game.”
Playing white, Giri used a great new idea in the opening phase and then tightened the noose around his Chinese rival who struggled with his time-management during this 38-move encounter.
Of the three drawn games, joint-second Maxime Vachier-Lagrave escaped with an 88-move draw against Ding Liren.
Ninth round results: Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 4) drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 5.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 5) bt Wang Hao (Chn, 4).
Kirill Alekseenko (Rus, 4) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 5); Ding Liren (Chn, 3.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 5) .
