Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates - Second Week

'Any volunteers to play World Champion Magnus Carlsen in a 12-game title match, please take one step forward!' And everyone except Anand took one step back. How else to explain the results since Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates - First Week? The following chart from the official site shows the standing after ten rounds.

The 11th round finished while I was writing this, all games ending in a draw. For me the strangest game has been Aronian - Anand in the eighth round. The Armenian GM needed a win over the former World Champion to go ahead of him and to reestablish tiebreak parity. The game was drawn after 19 moves with all of the pieces and most of the Pawns on the board. Anand had sacrificed the missing Pawn early in the game to give Aronian a cramped position.

Would Carlsen have agreed to a draw in that situation? No guts, no glory.