Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian lost the second round of the Sinquefield Cup to Fabiano Caruana of the United States.
Meanwhile, India's Viswanathan Anand played out another draw with Peter Svidler of Russia, world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway scored his first victory at the expense of Sergey Karjakin of Russia, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France played out a draw with Hikaru Nakamura (U.S.), while American Wesley So crashed through the defences of Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.
With seven rounds still to go in the $300000 prize money tournament, Carlsen, Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave now share the lead on 1.5 points, while Anand, Aronian, Wesley So, Nakamura and Karjakin share the fourth spot with one point apiece. Svidler, on half a point, is sole ninth and two losses see Nepomniachtchi at the bottom, yet to open his account.
Aronian had kickstarted the tournament with a victory.
