Round 5: Anand wins the classical section by Marc Lang

In today’s round, the players had the last chance to fight for a doubled price – a win in the classical games was worth two points and in tomorrow’s rapid tournament only one. As both results are added together in order to determine the overall winner, especially the players that are not known as rapid specialists were more or less obliged to take a few risks.

The first game to end was Nakamura – Aronian that saw once again why the so-called Berlin Defense has also “The Berlin Wall” as a nickname. Although Nakamura played a new move already at move 6, he didn’t manage to emerge out of the opening with an advantage and as the rest of the game went on without any clashes or complications, a draw was agreed on move 44 in a totally equal pawn ending.

Meanwhile, Caruana tried his best to win his first game of the tournament. Playing Vladimir Kramnik with white, who had drawn all of his games so far, he opted for a seemingly quiet Italian opening that soon came to life after Caruana pushed first his pawns on the queen’s wing and then in the center. Kramnik, however, placed his pieces on very active squares and maintained the balance with a temporary pawn sacrifice that ultimately lead to a drawn rook ending.

Fabiano Caruana is still down at -1 // © Eteri Kublashvili More excitement was granted by Karjakin – Anand, where the tournament’s leader had the chance to widen the gap to his pursuers. In an English Opening, both players followed a less common, but solid line which Karjakin played in a somewhat passiv way. Nevertheless, just when Anand’s pieces threatened to become to active, the Russian went for simplifications and steered the game in an equal endgame that was soon agreed drawn.

So before tomorrow’s rapid games, Anand is leading with 7 points, a full point ahead of Nakamura with 6, but the American is well-known for his rapid and blitz skills and even Kramnik (5 points) has still some chances if he performs well tomorrow.

Remember: All classical games count as double (a win is 2 points, a draw 1) while the rapid results are included only with 1 point for a win and 0.5 for a draw.

Rapid games start tomorrow at 13:00 CET, with a new round beginning at every full hour.


Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar