The Week in Chess

Fabiano Caruana moved to a perfect 5/5 at the halfway point of the Sinquefield Cup and a 2.5 point lead over Veselin Topalov and Magnus Carlsen. This score leaves him overwhelming favourite to win the event as it's hard to imagine even a sub-par second half costing him first place. Carlsen summed it up that even if he beat him with black, a tall order, it wouldn't be nearly enough.

Caruana wasn't quite as convincing in his win with black against Nakamura as he emerged out of an unusual opening with a disadvantage. However he was playing black and in the middle-game he turned things around completely. This was Caruana's first win against Nakamura having lost three games without a win of his own.

Caruana got an overwhelming position but missed a direct win with 44...Bh4!! and allowed Nakamura significant drawing chances especially with quite serious time trouble but after the faulty 48.f4? (Kf1) from Nakamura, Caruana brought home the point safely enough. Caruana was asked if the rest day might be unwelcome given his run of wins but he said he was "very happy" to see it as he was tired. Caruana said he wasn't doing a lot differently in this tournament. Perhaps his confidence was on the rise and, probably more significantly, he felt the tempo of his play was very good which has meant he has avoided serious time pressure.

Magnus Carlsen recorded his first win and felt his play was much more like his "normal level" today. He chose a rather unusual defence to 1.d4 but by the early middle-game seemed to have equalised. Levon Aronian gave up a pawn for very decent compensation but later his resistance in a difficult position was perhaps not as strong as one might expect, he seems to be in quite poor form here. Carlsen brought home the full point in a rook and pawn ending.

Veselin Topalov got back to 50% with a win in a very sharp Sicilian against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Topalov got a stable advantage leaving Vachier-Lagrave with a horribly passive position and after missing a key idea he resigned in a dreadful position. The resignation was perhaps a little early but there wasn't really much doubt about the result.

The players go into a rest day although I believe there are some publicity events for them to do.

Round 5 Standings: Caruana 5/5, Topalov, Carlsen 2.5, Vachier-Lagrave 2, Aronian, Nakamura 1.5.

Round 6 Tuesday 2pm local time: Nakamura-Aronian, Caruana-Topalov, Carlsen-Vachier-Lagrave