On Thursday the London Chess Classic resumed with the fifth round, and again three of the four games ended decisively. Vishy Anand bounced back from Tuesday's loss by beating Nigel Short. Hikaru Nakamura won again and grabbed the lead; he beat David Howell while Vladimir Kramnik defeated the third English player, Michael Adams. Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen drew their game; Luke McShane had a free round.

Hikaru Nakamura leads the London Chess Classic after five rounds | All photos © Ray Morris-Hill for the official website

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The 3rd edition of the London Chess Classic has been pretty exciting for five rounds already, not the least because there have been less draws than we usually see in top events. An interesting aspect of the footbal score is that the standings can shuffle quite a lot in each round, and so it happens that we see Hikaru Nakamura in clear first place thanks to two consecutive wins. He must be waking up feeling great on Friday, when he celebrates his 24th birthday.

In round 5 the American profited from David Howell's by now typical breaking-down-in-timetrouble. It was a nice finish by Nakamura, though.

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At the press conference Nakamura was asked whether Kasparov has given him any advice about physicial exercise.

He hasn't said anything like that. However, when I'm not a tournaments I like to do mountain hiking and I like running so on my own I do quite a bit of exercise.

David Howell again spoiled a reasonable position in timetrouble

Nakamura won three points and surpassed Magnus Carlsen in the standings as the Norwegian only got one point out of his game with Levon Aronian. After the opening Carlsen missed some tactics (later he would defend accurately) but then his opponent wasn't at his sharpest either.

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Nigel Short was doing fine for a long time with White against Vishy Anand, but then, just before the time control, he played what he called

a move of criminal stupidity

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To make things worse for the local fans, Mickey Adams then got beaten as well, by Vladimir Kramnik. It looked like the Russian slowly outplayed his opponent (well, maybe he did) and indeed he received some compliments afterwards from GM Jon Speelman. However, there was one moment where basically a one-move tactic could have saved Adams.

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GM commentator of the day was "strongest amateur in the world" Luke McShane. When asked about his tournament, he said:

I expected it to be very difficult this year and I'm surprised that I've surived so far. I certainly have done a little bit but not the same amount of preparation I was able to do last year. It is difficult. You come to the board slightly less in the way of ideas and kind of freshness, but on the other hand, one of the advantages you have is when you play you really want to play and I think that does have an influence, I enjoy the games.

Danny King then asked: 'Can you imagine becoming a full time professional again?'

It's a very difficult question to answer. I was playing for al ittle while and not I'm not so I kind of took that decision. I'm on holiday at the moment and I just want to play.

Round 5 standings

Round 5 standings (classical)

London Chess Classic 2011 | Schedule & results