5/4 score, and he closed it out with a 58-move draw against Anish Giri. The key round five pairing on Friday afternoon was Hikaru Nakamura vs. 5, and Andrey Esipenko at 1.
Fabiano Caruana, the pre-tournament favorite and world No. 3, got into heavy time pressure during his game against Javokhir Sindarov, and he had defeated China's Wei Yi in 19 moves in the previous round. World champion Gukesh Dommaraju, the youngest world champion in history, dethroned China's Ding Liren two years ago in Singapore, but he had a joint-last showing in March at the Prague International Chess Festival, winning only one of nine games.
Of course I never imagined that I would go into the rest day with plus three, but today I played a really good game and the prep was also fantastic, thanks to my seconds.
Sindarov and Gukesh will both be under 21 when they meet for the world championship, probably in November.
After he exchanged queens [20 Qxa6] ... I didn't have any pressure. I felt very comfortable during the game.
He's the youngest champion in history and of course one of the best players in the world. He has a lot of strong skills and it will be a very exciting match. He has very good team. What can I say, I just wish him good luck.