With only one round to go, it seems pretty certain at this point that Carlsen is going to win the tournament after all despite his rocky start, with only 1 point from his first 3 games.
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| Giri - So after 31. Qxb4 from the 12th round |
Giri is a pawn up. It's a distant passed pawn, and considering that Giri as a 2700+ grandmaster certainly has the technique to bring this position home, White is clearly winning.
However, I was really surprised to see that the game went on for another 80 (!) moves. It's true that White's kingside has some pretty serious weaknesses around the light squares, and in queen endings the defender usually has a million checks available to prolong the game. But still, it's quite an achievement to have the technique to convert the a-pawn.
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| So finally resigned after 111. a8Q |
Pushing the pawn to convert it eventually is harder than it looks as I have experienced in many games myself.
