As in the previous day's round at the FIDE Grand Prix event in Tashkent, five of the six games were drawn, but today's lone decisive game was of direct importance to the race for first. Coming into the round Fabiano Caruana and Sergey Karjakin were tied for first, but now Karjakin leads by himself with just two rounds to go with 5.5 points out of 9. It's not exactly a comfortable lead, however, as six(!!) players are just half a point behind: Caruana, Wang Hao, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Peter Leko and Alexander Morozevich. (And two more players are just another half a point back: nine of the twelve players have at least 50% at this stage and are in the battle for first place!)
Wang Hao defeated Caruana on the white side of an Exchange Slav. That line has a drawish reputation, but based not only on my own experience on both sides of that variation but even at the highest levels, it seems to me that rumors of its drawishness are severely exaggerated. Of course it's sometimes played by opponents who are looking for a quick, often pre-arranged draw, but when either player wants a fight it's sufficiently robust to accommodate their desire. And so it was in this case - White was able to obtain a real advantage and win with relative ease.
The other five games were drawn, but all were interesting, and in distinctive ways. The openings were diverse, the character of each game was unique - some were quieter, while others saw complications and even sacrifices. Even if your interest is primarily on the London tournament, the games from Tashkent are still worth your attention - draws notwithstanding.