The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen beat Wesley So to join Levon Aronian in the lead after another interesting round of play. Early leader Veselin Topalov said that he wasn't in the best shape today and he went astray from a good position against Fabiano Caruana. There is a rest day on Friday. The leaders Aronian and Carlsen meet on Saturday.

Carlsen sacrificed a pawn on the white side of a Najdorf Sicilian against Wesley So. He was a bit concerned early on that So might have some preparation but once on their own resources Carlsen had at least enough compensation for the pawn if not the advantage. Carlsen had a winning position on the run up to first time control but there were a number of tactical complications and there were tactical errors from both players 33.Nc4? (33.Rd6 wins) 33...Bxd4? (33...Rxc4!) and finally 40.Nd4?! made the win much more difficult (40.Nxc5!). Carlsen was worried he might have blown it at first time control but once he saw he could play 44.c3 he was probably just winning again.

Hikaru Nakamura outprepared his opponent Anish Giri with the novelty 15.Qf2 and the fine idea of 22.a4 when he must have the advantage. Nakamura had prepared 23.Re2 but instead played the wrong rook move 23.Rd3 after which black was probably better but Giri was uncertain about his position. The game ended in a draw by perpetual check.

Veselin Topalov had a nice opening advantage against Fabiano Caruana but then started to overlook things starting with 21.Bg3 Nb4! and soon was forced to give up material for any chances at all. Caruana was accurate enough to bring home the point.

Levon Aronian was probably a little too enterprising against Alexander Grischuk and was a pawn down for little or no compensation.

"I missed his 19.Qf4 move, which was extremely strong." Aronian.

Grischuk was however heading for his normal time pressure and allowed Aronian back in the game and whilst he was still probably somewhat better the game was agreed drawn on move 30.

Viswanathan Anand looked to have a nice advantage against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave but was forced to settle for a draw after first time control.

Round 5 standings: Carlsen, Aronian 3.5pts/5 Topalov, Giri 3pts, Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave 2.5pts, Caruana, Grischuk 2pts, Anand, So 1.5pts.

Round 6 Saturdat 30th August 2015. Grischuk-Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave-Topalov, Giri-Anand, So-Nakamura, Aronian-Carlsen.