Ian Nepomniachtchi outplayed Wang Hao and kept his sole lead in the tournament, while Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri were deciding who would become his main rival. The American grandmaster played very sharply and uncompromisingly in the middle game, but lost the track of the game and let his opponent get the initiative. Anish Giri found the precise way to convert his advantage into the full point and as a result, keeps chasing the leader with only half a point distance.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won his first game in the second half of the tournament. He defeated Kirill Alekseenko, who played unsuccessfully in the sharp line of the Caro-Kann Defense. Alexander Grischuk also failed to solve his opening problems and lost against Ding Liren.

For the first time in the FIDE Candidates Tournament, all four games have ended decisively on the 24th of April 2021.

Wang Hao (China) - Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia)

The leader of the tournament was the last to finish his game. Once again Ian Nepomniachtchi demonstrated his commitment to the "solid strategy" by opting for the Petrov's Defence, which he had rarely used before. «I'm a new player to Petroff defence, so I have no experience," admitted Ian at the press conference.

In response, Wang Hao chose a seemingly unambitious line with an early exchange of queens. However, Vladimir Kramnik, who was commenting on the 12th round live, explained that this "modesty" can be tricky and Black must play accurately enough in order to not to run into some troubles. "I was only thinking of how not to get into trouble. This position, of course, is equal, but it can be unpleasant sometimes as White very slowly build up. I had no idea what to do, so I just started to move around to fix a structure, " shared Ian his thoughts after the game.

Wang Hao started spending lots of time on his moves, while Ian continued to play quickly, harmoniously positioned his pieces and achieved a very promising position.

To avoid a passive defence, Wang Hao pushed his pawn on the queenside which provoked many exchanges. However, White could not achieve complete equality and on move 39, Hao made a mistake and found his king and knight cut off on the first rank.

Wang Hao admitted that at some point he could no longer count anything and after the time control started playing like a 2200 player.

Thanks to the strong passed a-pawn, White had great chances to save the game. However, Ian continued searching for chances and posing unpleasant problems for White. In a difficult position, Wang Hao made another mistake, his position became hopeless, and he had to resign on move 59.

leader Ian Nepomniachtchi on the tournament situation after 12 rounds: "I think it is still very complex and still two rounds to go."

Fabiano Caruana (USA) - Anish Giri (Netherlands)

Another important game that decided who would be the main rival of Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final stage. In the Sicilian Defense, Giri chose a tricky move order trying to lead the game to the Sveshnikov's system while avoiding the Rossolimo system (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 ). The most principal continuation for White could have led to a crazy position, where the white's king has to move to the centre of the board. Caruana deviated from this line and chose a relatively quiet one. An original, approximately equal position appeared on the board with chances for both sides.

In the middlegame, White voluntarily destroyed his pawn structure on the queen's side, in order to get the central outpost on d5. Caruana was very optimistic about his chances, but Giri's strong defensive move 20… Qf8! turned out to be an unpleasant surprise for him. At this moment White should have switched to the fight for a draw by organizing the c4-c5 but according to Caruana, he didn't see how to continue after Nc4. The American grandmaster lost the track of the game and Giri felt the right moment to fight for a win. Black got an important strategical advantage by exchanging the dark-squared bishops and providing his knight with an "eternal" spot on e5.

However, on the 40th move, Giri made an inaccuracy, but it did not affect the assessment of the position. On move 45, White had to resign.

Anish Giri: "You have to be lucky of course [to win with black pieces] ... I felt Fabiano was quite enthusiastic about his position but after 20...Qf8, which is a good move, he probably realised that he is no longer playing for an advantage ... I think it was a big let-down for him."

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) - Kirill Alekseenko (Russia)

Kirill Alekseenko tried to surprise his opponent by playing a new opening - the Caro-Kann Defense. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave returned a surprise by choosing a sharp system with 3.f3, which is also a rare guest in his repertoire.

In response Kirill chose the most ambitious continuation, however, by his own admission, he mixed up several variations, and by the 10th move, Black's position looked extremely worrying. Maxime pointed out that there are many very complex variations in this line, and he didn't remember all the details but remembered enough to gain an advantage.

Alekseenko rejected the sacrifice of the central pawn and was forced to defend an endgame, in which White had an advantage of two bishops, active pieces and a mobile pawn centre. To complete the development, Black had to give up a pawn albeit with not enough compensation.

While converting his advantage, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave methodically strengthened his position while trying not to give his opponent a single tactical chance, and confidently won the game.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave: "I feel mostly relieved. It's the case of opening gone bad. "I was happy how I was calculating things. Hopefully, it was alright and it would mean I can move on with my tournament and try to play two good games."

Ding Liren (China) - Alexander Grischuk (Russia)

The opponents played one of the Queen's Gambit lines, which Alexander Grischuk himself tried to break through exactly 10 years ago. During the Candidates Matches in Kazan, he had White pieces against Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik and obviously, studied this somewhat passive, but extremely strong line in every detail. However, in the 12th round of the Candidates, he played this position for Black.

Alexander moved one of his bishops into the enemy's camp and after trading pawns on the queen's side, Black temporarily won the fight for the only open file in the position. White advanced the pawn to h5, exchanged both pairs of rooks and sent the knight to e5, having achieved a large space advantage over the entire board.

In a difficult position, Black tried to "muddy the water" by sacrificing two pawns, but Ding Liren confidently stopped the opponent's counterplay and won the game.