Today, Magnus Carlsen lost with the White pieces to the always dangerous Alexander Beliavsky. But the Rising Stars all but secured the team victory thanks to wins by Karjakin and Smeets.
Mark Crowther from TWIC had this to say:
“Youth almost secured victory with a round to go by going 25-20 up. However the race for the invitation to next year’s Amber tournament available to the best scoring rising star is open again after Carlsen lost and Karjakin won. Carlsen leads by half a point with a round to go. This confirms a trend seen in Carlsen’s career where he has failed towards the end of events when achievement is close (in the recent Norwegian Championships and last year’s Wijk aan Zee tournament are just examples that spring to mind)”
You can read more of Mark’s excellent work here.
Round 9 Results (Aug. 28, 2006)
Carlsen, Magnus – Beliavsky, Alexander G 0-1
Karjakin, Sergey – Jusupov, Artur 1-0
Wang Hao – Andersson, Ulf 1/2
Stellwagen, Daniel – Ljubojevic, Ljubomir 1/2
Smeets, Jan – Nunn, John 1-0
Round 9 Standings:
Rising Stars team: 25 points
1 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2675 6.0
2 Karjakin, Sergey g UKR 2679 5.5
3 Wang Hao g CHN 2610 5.0
4 Stellwagen, Daniel g NED 2575 4.5
5 Smeets, Jan g NED 2532 4.0
Experience team: 20 points
1 Beliavsky, Alexander G g SLO 2625 6.0
2 Ljubojevic, Ljubomir g SCG 2551 4.0
3 Andersson, Ulf g SWE 2542 3.5
4 Jusupov, Artur g GER 2617 3.5
5 Nunn, John g ENG 2617 3.0 
well tomorrow is the end of the tournament and hopefully Magnus will win tomorrow to sew up victory.
I know Beliavsky has always been a great player. but this tournament has given me new respect for him. He is still playing in top form. and I would have to say that he outplayed Magnus.
I hope Magnus is learning some lessons now.
By the way this is one great tournament. great idea for the teams. lots of entheusiasm from the fans. and fun to watch the games. it certainly has a lot of interest and it really is not the top 10 players. which shows that a great chess tournament does not need to have only top 10 players.
everyone loves the live video. that is really great. the fans are getting spoiled.
I wonder what we will have for the Kramnik Topalov Match. will there be live video. It would be great, but I dont think we will see live video of the quality we have here.
First class tournament and I hope Magnus wins.