It’s hard to tell from the video but Aronian says that when Nakamura claimed he was j’adoubing his king, Aronian replied that there was a video of what happened.
This may be the first time that instant replay helped decide a grandmaster game.
They didn’t go to video. The arbiter was watching and would have intervened (or at least should have intervened) regardless.
Naka had a fist full of king for several seconds before his hand recoiled away in horror. Easy call.
Edit: Photo via chess.com
Am I the only one who is bothered by Nakamura’s lame attempt to claim that he was adjusting the King, when very clearly he intended to move it? Saying that he seems to be ethically challenged is about as kind a way of putting it as I can think of.
No, you’re not the only one.
The other tell: previous positions had arisen in which it had been perfectly safe for Nakamura to play …Kf8, and he had done so.
With the White rook on d7, a check on the 6th became answerable by Rd6.
Have not had a chance to review today’s games, but Nakamura bounced back with a win with White over Topalov today.
Standings at the halfway mark:
+2 Aronian, Karjakin
+1 Anand
0 Caruana, Giri
-1 Nakamura, Svidler
-3 Topalov
Topolov came at him with a sacrifice attack. He stayed steady and went on to beat him. Augers well for the rest of his tournament.
Round 8 results:
Caruana 1-0 Nakamura (Berlin Defense, 33)
Aronian 1/2-1/2 Giri (Semi-Slav Hastings, 47)
Topalov 1/2-1/2 Anand (QGD, 51)
Svidler 1/2-1/2 Karjakin (English Four Knights, kingside fianchetto, 50)
Standings with six games to play:
+2 Aronian, Karjakin
+1 Anand, Caruana
0 Giri
-1 Svidler
-2 Nakamura
-3 Topalov
Round 9 pairings and results as of 1:28 EDT:
Anand 1-0 Aronian (Guioco Piano, 66) Anand methodically worked his king to dominance in an instructive rook and pawn endgame.
Giri - Caruana (Neo-Grunfeld) Comp evals like Giri’s extra (and passed) pawn, but Caruana’s 2Bs to Giri’s 2Ns have been tough.
Nakamura 1/2-1/2 Karjakin (QID Nimzovich, 44)
Topalov 1/2-1/2 Svidler (Ruy Lopez anti-Marshall 8.a4, 47)
Anand and Karjakin both at +2. Karjakin holds first tiebreak with win over Anand. Anand holds second tiebreak with 3 wins to 2.
Assuming nothing earth-shattering happens in R10, it appears that R11 is perhaps the defining round of the Candidates Tournament. This, of course, does not presume to foreclose the possibility of unexpected developments among the leaders on Wednesday.
Looking ahead to R10, Karjakin has white, and Anand has black. However, they’re not playing each other. Karjakin will face Giri, who has become perhaps the hardest player in the world to beat. And Anand will play Caruana, against whom Anand doesn’t have the best record in classical chess (+1 -2 =15); however, the most likely result of that game is still a draw.
So, if the leaders after R10 are the same as the leaders after R9, Anand will have white against Karjakin in R11, and will likely be in a fighting mood.
Giri- Caruana draw
Caruana’s save against Giri might turn out to have been a key game. With today’s win against Anand (18.Bxh6!), Caruana has a clear path to qualification. (Check out this ChessBase article, especially the section “Quantifying a Power Game.”)
But drawing out may not be sufficient, and round 14 is Karjakin-Caruana.
Hopefully, he’s on a roll. Bravo to Fabio!
Caruana-Anand post-mortem here.
And the roller-coaster continues…
Topalov played one of those “this is why I’m a GM, and you’re not” exchange sacs against Caruana, depriving the American of back-rank coordination. Caruana seemed to unwind well, and around move 31-32, looked like he might be able to finish consolidating and win, thanks to opening the h-file. But then…I don’t know exactly how to describe what happened, but Topalov was able to generate serious pressure. Caruana had to hustle to make time control, then offered a draw right after…and Topalov accepted. I’ll chalk that one up to, “I’m not strong enough to understand what happened in the last 10 moves.” 
Aronian seemed to have the edge, but then went strangely passive, and Svidler generated a heavy-piece attack from thin air. Aronian eventually resigned before losing his queen to a back-rank pin.
Meanwhile, Anand pulled out an Anti-Berlin against Karjakin, and Karjakin seemed to slowly drift first into a passive position, then into an outright bad position. Anand eventually won a pawn, then outmaneuvered Karjakin in a R+B ending with opposite color bishops to collect the full point.
Giri is probably kicking himself for his game today against Nakamura. Giri could’ve put himself in the thick of things if he’d converted his huge advantage (check out Nakamura’s position after move 18 - have some bicarbonate handy); instead, he produced his 11th consecutive draw.
Caruana and Anand now lead with +2. Karjakin is on +1. Caruana permanently holds the first tiebreak over Anand (h2h), which effectively gives Caruana the first place as of now.
Tomorrow will be very interesting. Anand plays black against Nakamura (who is +5 in classical chess against Anand, but is not playing well at all). Karjakin gets white against Topalov, who is very likely to be throwing some pieces around, looking to at least play an interesting game. Caruana gets white against Aronian; no way to tell which Aronian will turn up for that game. The likeliest outcome of tomorrow’s play is that Caruana is still in the lead, and quite possibly there by himself, with two rounds left. But I’m not confident enough to wager on that. 
Is “head to head” really the first tiebreaker? I have two reasons for asking: (1) Although this is a common tiebreak in physical sports, it is rarely used in chess; (2) I seem to remember reading somewhere recently that round 14 is on Mar. 28, and Mar. 29 is “for tiebreaks”. This makes it sound like there are no automatic tiebreaks and they will have some sort of playoff in the event of a tie. Are the official tiebreak procedures documented anywhere?
Article 3.7 of the rules and regulations for the Candidates Tournament addresses tiebreaks.
The 2016 Candidates is a lot like the weather in Chicago. If you don’t like it, wait five minutes, and it’s likely to change.
Anand lost quickly to Nakamura, continuing a horrible string of classical results for the Indian player against this particular opponent. Nakamura’s 10th move in an otherwise quiet Italian looked unusual to me (caveat: I know about 1.5 openings, total). Anand didn’t react well at all, and basically got waxed.
Meanwhile, Karjakin punished Topalov’s overly ambitious play in similarly brutal fashion. (Neither Nakamura nor Karjakin required even 30 moves to dispatch their opponents.)
Finally, I’m looking at Caruana’s position after move 53 against Aronian. I really, really don’t like White (Caruana) here. Aronian’s down a pawn, but has a passed pawn on h4 that might as well be strapped to a turbo booster, and heavy pieces that can both hinder Caruana and help protect/promote the h-pawn. I imagine that, since Caruana allowed this, he knows what to do to hold…but this can’t be what he had in mind when he sat down several hours ago.
(Never got around to looking at Svidler-Giri, which is also still going as of this writing. Unfortunately, the real world intrudes upon my chess voyeurism now.)
So, for now, Karjakin leads again on +2, with Caruana (who, IMHO, is in real trouble). Anand drops to +1. Giri could move up to +1 if he beats Svidler.
Aronian’s fade and Topalov’s play are significant stories. Aronian seemed to be playing a steady game like Karjakin and Anand. All three showed very good preparation. Then Aronian started to fizzle out. Topalov has never really gotten started in this event. The Anand collapse to Nakamura is stunning. His team usually has him well prepared. Fatigue and the matter of a “difficult opponent” appear to be the major factors in his loss. Giri is probably as surprised as everyone else at his many draws. Is he just happy to be there or is he just not able to get off a shot? Only he can tell, and he probably will in the pages of New in Chess.
Unless someone can beat him, Karjakin looks like he will be the one to face Magnus Carlsen. The older hands have not been able to maintain their nerves or level of play. Only Caruana has a fighting chance to keep up. A comeback by the elder statesman and former world champion Anand would be a big surprise.
Caruana held the half point. He and Karjakin are at +2, and Karjakin holds the tiebreak with more wins (3 to 2).