In the 12th round, the Norwegian chess player, playing with black pieces, defeated the American Fabiano Caruana.
Thus, he has one point more than his opponents.
In the 13th round, Carlsen was supposed to play with Russian Daniil Dubov, he withdrew from the tournament due to a positive test for coronavirus.
The Norwegian will automatically receive one point for a technical victory.
Earlier, chess player Dubov fell ill with coronavirus and withdrew from the tournament in Wijk aan Zee.