In the 5th round of the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin maintained their lead. The top clash Anand-Carlsen was a quick draw from a Petroff while Karjakin split the point with Anish Giri in a Grünfeld. The game of the day was Harikrishna-Van Wely (1-0) which finished in a nice mating combination. Ivan Sokolov suffered an opening catastrophe against Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura outplayed Hou Yifan with Black from a Dragon and Wang Hao defeated Erwin l'Ami. The last winner was Peter Leko, who brought down Fabiano Caruana.

Anand vs Carlsen, the top game in round 5

Richard Rapport is having a splendid tournament in the B group; in today's clash between the leaders he beat Sergey Tiviakov with Black. In "C" Fernando Peralta is still half a point ahead of Sabino Brunello.

IM Gert Ligterink and GMs Hans Ree and Ljubomir Ljubojevic in the press room

On the rest day (Wednesday) it was exactly five years ago that Bobby Fischer passed away. Probably without thinking too much about that fact, the players of the different grandmaster groups produced an even bloodier round than the one before the rest day, with just 5 out of 21 games finishing in draws!

Another familiar (and famous) face: Vlastimil Hort

The first game to finish in the A group was one of these draws. The top encounter between World Champion Vishy Anand and the world's highest rated player Magnus Carlsen was quite disappointing for the spectators: a Petroff that finished peacefully after less than two hours of play.

Carlsen played a very solid set-up in the Petroff, following Wang Hao's handling of the position by postponing ...d6-d5. Black did end up with an isolated queen's pawn, but he had enough play (based on the move ...Qb6) as the white bishop wasn't ideally placed on g3.

PGN string

We asked if Anand was surprised about his opponent's opening choice.

Yeah, sure. It was the one opening I managed not to look at today. I can't recall him playing the Petroff.

Vishy Anand

Maybe the opening was related to Carlsen not feeling too well this day. He was a bit under the weather, and was in fact visited by the tournament doctor before the game. But the Norwegian decided to play Anand anyway, who didn't really notice anything special.

No, not really. I've also been nursing slightly, an infected throat, but it's no big deal. Well... maybe I should have drawn a connection for the fact that he was also drinking tea like me!

For the official website, Anand gave the following comments.

Videos by Freshmen media

Anand being interviewed for the official website

Not long afterwards the following game finished, but not in a draw: Ivan Sokolov basically miscalculated completely as soon as the opening phase was over and Levon Aronian had no difficulties refuting the Dutchman's moves.

PGN string

Wang Hao wasn't too happy about his opening play ("White is a bit better of course") but it seems that Erwin l'Ami chose the wrong plan, and then Black's queenside majority proved much more dangerous than White's army on the other side.

PGN string

Hou Yifan went down against Hikaru Nakamura. She felt she went for the wrong plan; White didn't get enough counterplay.

PGN string

Arguably the most spectacular game was Harikrishna-Van Wely. With remarkable ease the Indian debutant in the A group got his kingside attack going against the Dutchman's Scheveningen. The critical moment was reached on move 28, when the computer shows a defence that looks way too dangerous for humans.

PGN string

Peter Leko also won his first game, and it was a great one by the Hungarian. He outplayed Fabiano Caruana positionally, got full control over the queenside and then decided matters on the kingside. A model Ruy Lopez.

PGN string

Sergey Karjakin and Anish Giri drew in 38 moves in a Grünfeld (yes, Karjakin is trying 1.d4 more and more these days). The game looked fairly balanced from start to finish.

PGN string

Anish Giri and Loek van Wely analyzing their games

B group

In the B group Richard Rapport of Hungary took a firm lead thanks to a victory against co-leader Sergey Tiviakov. In Groningen Rapport had lost to the same opponent, so he was trying to take revenge.

Richard Rapport with Black against Sergey Tiviakov

He felt that castling queenside by White was too sharp. The 16-year-old Hungarian talent declined a draw offer at move 17 and went on to win. He told us that he needs to attend school for another 14 months, and then he plans to become a professional chess player. At the moment he is a private student, which means he has extra time to spend on chess. In Wijk aan Zee Rapport works with Hungarian GM Andras Flumbort. At the last World Junior Championship Rapport finished shared first with Alexander Ipatov but second on tie-break. Don't miss the spectacular game Grandelius vs Ipatov!

PGN file

The B group

Grandelius and Ipatov analyzing their amazing game

C group

Fernando Peralta is still going strong in C; on Thursday the Argentine GM beat Igor Bitensky of Israel with Black. Sabino Brunello is still half a point behind after beating Alexandra Goryachkina, and behind him a group of five players follows with 3/5. 

PGN file

The C group at the start of the round

Tata Steel 2013 | Grandmaster Group A | Round 5 standings

Tata Steel 2013 | Grandmaster Group A | Pairings

Tata Steel 2013 | Grandmaster Group B | Round 5 standings

Tata Steel 2013 | Grandmaster Group B | Pairings

Tata Steel 2013 | Grandmaster Group C | Round 5 standings

Tata Steel 2013 | Grandmaster Group C | Pairings