It looks like the Class of 1990 is still in charge. Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Dmitri Andreikin were all born that year, and their collective impact on Candidates and World Championship-level play is probably unmatched in the history of the game. (Maybe a case can be made for 1911 - Botvinnik and Reshevsky - or 1937 - Spassky, Portisch, and with a two-month fudge, Tal. But I'm still throwing in with 1990.) Who will play the world champion at the end of this year (assuming, probably wrongly, that there will be a world championship at the end of the year)? The most plausible contender at the moment is Nepomniachtchi, who leads the Candidates by a full point over the second-placed player. Who's that? MVL.
There are still eight rounds left, but Nepo is on the verge of running away with the event. In round six he won his third game of the tournament and second straight, defeating Ding Liren (who lost his third game of the event) in a d3 Ruy Lopez. Nepomniachtchi won a good game, clearly outplaying his opponent, but there were a couple of subtle tactical slips that could have allowed Ding to save the game. He missed them, however, and the Russian player extended his lead in the tournament.
MVL not only failed to keep the pace, but was fortunate not to lose against Wang Hao, who enjoyed a near-ideal ending against the Frenchman's beloved Gruenfeld. Had White won, he would have swapped places with Vachier-Lagrave to take over clear second; instead, he remains in a tie for third at 50%.
There was one winner, Anish Giri, whose grinding against Kirill Alekseenko paid off with a 98-move win. It was a very strange game, as Alekseenko almost seemed to find new ways to get in trouble every time he escaped from his previous troubles. He was a long shot in any case, but this loss probably puts his hopes to an end. As for Giri, he is back to 50% and, as he noted, achieved his first-ever win in a Candidates (he drew all 14 games in 2018).
Finally, Fabiano Caruana once again showed good preparation - this time with Black against Alexander Grischuk - and once again failed to make the most of it. He outplayed Grischuk, who was, as always, in serious time pressure, but an error on move 38 eliminated any winning chances after his opponent's accurate reply. (Games here, with my comments to the three of them.)
Today is the second rest day of the tournament, and tomorrow the first cycle concludes, with the following pairings:
MVL vs. Nepo is potentially the game of the tournament. If MVL wins, the tournament is wide open, especially if one or more of the 3-pointers also win. If Nepo wins, Carlsen can start his preparations for November.