Aronian is half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So.
In the post-game interview, Aronian remarked that he spent more time preparing and doing tactics before the games and felt that he was playing “with more passion.”
He still has his work cut out for him as he faces Garry Kasparov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Magnus Carlsen on the final day.
Ten of the world’s elite remotely fight it out for a total prize fund of $150,000, playing nine rounds of Chess 960 or Fischer Random games over three days.
Chess 960 is a chess variant, the original concept for which was pioneered by the late American World Champion Bobby Fischer, where the pieces on the first and last ranks are shuffled. Some 960 unique positions are possible, which explains the name.