First round very quiet. Carlsen drew Girl, all other games drawn except for Anand beating Nepo. Carlsen plays Anand in round 2 tomorrow.

A real snooze fest, so far. Only 1 decisive game out of 18 played thru 3 rounds.

Caruana beat Aronian in the 4th round, now leads the event with 2.5/4. Still no drama, only the 2nd decisive result thru 24 games.

@sundown316

utter boredom..

@Hells-Caretaker Indeed!

Lower the time control.

Ding and Nepo both won today and the Carlsen - Karjakin game finished on on a fun note.

Carlsen - Karjakin St.Louis 2019

In Rd. 5, MVL saved an incredible position where he had B, N, and 3 pawns against 2 rooks. Game ended in stalemate, the 2nd one of the event. Can anybody else recall a super tournament where 2 stalemates ocured?

Rd. 7, all draws. Ding was very lucky to save an exchange down ending vs Anand.

Incredible Rd. 9-Karjakin mated MVL!

Forgot to mention 5 way tie for first, all with 4.5 points, Carlsen at 4. Look for Magnus to go all out the last 3 rounds.

Could this be Dings tournament? Imo it is long over due! His play has been absolutely impeccable. Great in attack and defence. Personally i feel for Vishy, he has played really well as well, just lacking a certain killer instinct somewhere.

Looking very much like a DIng (drew last game) v Carlsen (won v MVL) play off.

The bad news for Ding Liren is Carlsen's play-off record. He is on 10 out of 10.

2018: 3-0 vs Caruana
2018: 1,5-0,5 vs Giri
2017: 1,5-0,5 vs MVL
2016: 3-1 vs Karjakin
2015: 2-0 vs Yu
2015: 1,5-0,5 vs MVL
2015: 3-2 vs Naiditsch
2012: 2-0 vs Caruana
2011: 1,5-0,5 vs Ivanchuk
2007: 3-2 vs Onischuk

(info from another site, I'm sad, but not that sad to keep a track of these things.)

It is a two way tie Carlsen v Ding Liren.

2-game rapid mini-match (10 min + 5 sec delay) if still tied then Armageddon
5 and 4 (White has 5 minutes - Black 4 minutes, Black has draw odds.)

MVL v Carlsen. (fantastic game.)

It is obviously very impressive to see him come back at the end like this, but how did no one else get +3? Anand could have done it, Nepo could have done it, Karjakin, Ding, almost everyone in fact! Lol