Nanjing, Round 5: Carlsen, Bacrot Win Again
All seems well for Magnus Carlsen, especially with White, as he finished the first cycle with a demolition job on Veselin Topalov. Carlsen played well, Topalov played terribly, and the result was a very one-sided win with an attractive finish. Carlsen thus finished the first cycle in clear first with 4/5.
Surprisingly, he's only half a point ahead of Etienne Bacrot, who won his third game in a row. As Bacrot would be - and has been - the first to admit, he has been receiving presents in this tournament, and today was no exception. Today, Wang Yue blundered a piece in a position that was headed for a draw, and as a result Bacrot is in clear second, a point ahead of Viswanathan Anand.
Anand had White against Vugar Gashimov, but made no headway against the latter's Schlechter Slav/Grünfeld. The game was drawn in just 25 moves.
Standings After Round 5:
1. Carlsen 4
2. Bacrot 3.5
3. Anand 2.5
4. Gashimov 2
5-6. Topalov, Wang Yue 1.5
Round 6 Pairings (on Tuesday; tomorrow is a rest day): Wang Yue - Anand, Bacrot - Carlsen (potentially a huge game), Gashimov - Topalov.
Official site here, games (with my comments) here.
Reader Comments (2)
So, if I understand it correctly, the error on Topalov's side was to allow the elimination of the bishop by doing Bf8? I guess what I am getting at is that it looked innocuous enough for me not to think it was a mistake, but then it seems like Na5 was needed to get rid of the strong bishop on b3.
Also, I fail to see why it is that kh2 is such a good play. Is it because (after your sample line at the end) it does not allow a check on the first rank and so the rook can go on the attack? IF so, I understand how it gets the ! sign.
@estirodri: Topalov made several mistakes, of which allowing Ng6xf8 was one. As for Kh2, it wasn't strictly necessary but it was a nice move. The point is to have Rxf6 in some lines without allowing ...Qe1+. He could have won without it, but that made the threat all the more serious.