Carlsen beats Shirov to extend the leading margin

Annotated games:

Carlsen – Ivanchuk / Svidler – Carlsen / Nisipeanu – Ivanchuk / Carlsen – Van Wely

Eljanov – Carlsen / Carlsen – Shirov

Magnus Carlsen signed another win, this time against World Cup finalist Alexei Shirov, and already holds 1.5 points advantage ahead of Karjakin and Volokitin. This also means that Carlsen is now unofficial 2nd on the FIDE rating list, six points behind Vishy Anand. See Hans Arild Runde’s list for more details. Join us on Friday at 14:00 CET for the live coverage of Shirov-Karjakin and Carlsen-Alekseev.

Round 5 results:

Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 1 – 0 Van Wely, Loek

Alekseev, Evgeny ½ – ½ Eljanov, Pavel

Carlsen, Magnus 1 – 0 Shirov, Alexei

Onischuk, Alexander 0 – 1 Svidler, Peter

Jakovenko, Dmitry ½ – ½ Ivanchuk, Vassily

Volokitin, Andrei 1 – 0 Karjakin, Sergey

Round 5 standings:

1. Magnus Carlsen 2765 – 4.5

2-3. Sergey Karjakin 2732 and Andrei Volokitin 2684 – 3.0

4-8. Alexei Shirov 2740, Pavel Eljanov 2687, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2684, Peter Svidler 2746 and Vassily Ivanchuk 2740 – 2.5

9-10. Dmitry Jakovenko 2711 and Evgeny Alekseev 2711 – 2.0

11-12. Alexander Onischuk 2664 and Loek Van Wely 2676 – 1.5

Round 6 pairings:

Van Wely, Loek – Onischuk, Alexander

Eljanov, Pavel – Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter

Carlsen, Magnus – Alekseev, Evgeny

Svidler, Peter – Jakovenko, Dmitry

Ivanchuk, Vassily – Volokitin, Andrei

Shirov, Alexei – Karjakin, Sergey

Photos:

Round 1 / More on the tournament website

Wang Yue joined Grischuk in the lead

Round 5 results:

Carlsen Magnus 2765 ½ – ½ Kamsky Gata 2726

Gashimov Vugar 2679 ½ – ½ Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752

Radjabov Teimour 2751 ½ – ½ Inarkiev Ernesto 2684

Cheparinov Ivan 2695 ½ – ½ Svidler Peter 2746

Karjakin Sergey 2732 0 – 1 Wang Yue 2689

Navara David 2672 ½ – ½ Bacrot Etienne 2705

Grischuk Alexander 2716 ½ – ½ Adams Michael 2729

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Sergey Karjakin and Wang Yue

Round 5 standings:

1-2. Grischuk Alexander 2716 RUS and Yue Wang 2689 CHN – 3.5

3-6. Kamsky Gata 2726 USA, Radjabov Teimour 2751 AZE, Gashimov Vugar 2679 AZE and Adams Michael 2729 ENG – 3.0

7-10. Carlsen Magnus 2765 NOR, Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 AZE, Karjakin Sergey 2732 UKR and Bacrot Etienne 2705 FRA – 2.5

11-12. Svidler Peter 2746 RUS and Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 RUS – 2.0

13. Navara David 2672 CZE – 1.5

14. Cheparinov Ivan 2695 BUL – 0.5

Round 6 on 27th April at 15:00 local time

Kamsky Gata 2726 - Adams Michael 2729

Bacrot Etienne 2705 - Grischuk Alexander 2716

Wang Yue 2689 - Navara David 2672

Svidler Peter 2746 - Karjakin Sergey 2732

Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 - Cheparinov Ivan 2695

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 - Radjabov Teimour 2751

Carlsen Magnus 2765 - Gashimov Vugar 2679

Morelia 5th round report and replayable games

Round 5 results:

Peter Leko – Vishy Anand 0-1

Veselin Topalov – Magnus Carlsen 0-1

Levon Aronian – Alexei Shirov draw

Teimour Radjabov – Vassily Ivanchuk draw

Round 5 standings:

1. Vishy Anand 3.5

2. Levon Aronian 3.0

3-5. Alexei Shirov, Veselin Topalov and Magnus Carlsen 2.5

6-8. Teimour Radjabov, Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk 1.5

Levon Aronian allowed Alexei Shirov to enter his favorite English Opening (2…Bb4), but Shirov took long thought in the opening, probably wondering about opponent’s preparation. He used the sideline that wasn’t played over the last ten years and introduced novelty with 8…f5. Aronian missed the opportunity to challenge black’s conception with 10. g4! and Shirov recaptured sacrificed pawn, easily equalizing in the process. Draw was agreed as early as on 18th move.

Vishy Anand is simply brilliant with black pieces, having achieved third consecutive win with this color. It started naively, Peter Leko opted for simplifying line in the English attack of Naidorf Sicilian. In the resulting endgame R+B vs R+N, the only imbalance was pawn majority at hands of each player. Leko tried to force advance of his queenside pawns, but Anand skillfully maneuvered with king, knight and rook to push his own pawn and catch white king in the spider’s net. Note that white’s promotion with 36. b6? Rxa6 37. b7 Rxc6 38. b8Q Rxc3+ is losing because black earns too much of the material.

The game between Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk took a course of Classical French defence, the same opening in which Radjabov beat Kasparov once, only that time he was with black pieces. Radjabov tried to complicate matters, refusing move repetition once, but Ivanchuk was up to task and with active play finally forced repetition some 15 moves later.

It is simply incredible to see Veselin Topalov being surprised with Magnus Carlsen’s opening choice. Magnus already played Alekhine defence, for example against GM Petr Haba at the European Club Cup and in numerous games during the World Blitz Championship. All these games are available in databases. It was a good joke to see GM Hikaru Nakamura kibitzing that “Magnus is trying to copy him”. Anyway, Topalov run into early trouble after not being able to bear with tactical consequences of the daring 12…c5! Carlsen kept the earned pawn thanks to back-rank motifs and, as GM Vladimir Dimitrov commented, played simple and strong moves to claim the full point. Both of them are now having 50% score.

Goran Urosevic

Round 6 pairings:

Veselin Topalov – Vishy Anand

Levon Aronian – Peter Leko

Teimour Radjabov – Magnus Carlsen

Vassily Ivanchuk – Alexei Shirov

Please note that Thursday is rest day. Join us on Friday at 16:30 EST / 22:30 CET for the live commentary on the 5th round of Morelia-Linares. See you there!