While he's still in clear first place - both in the tournament and on the rating list - Magnus Carlsen was given a reminder of his humanity today. All it took was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave grinding away for 96 moves! The variation 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 (disallowing the Sveshnikov) e5 (preventing White from getting a different Open Sicilian of his choosing) tends to give White a pleasant and safe space advantage in exchange for a very solid position. That more or less held true for another 90 moves or so.
After 30 moves, the players reached an ending with queens, both pairs of rooks and all of their pawns. White had whatever winning chances there were, but thoughts of a win were for the distant future. After 50 moves, a pair of pawns had been swapped and the pawn structure ossified. Vachier-Lagrave did essentially nothing for 27 more moves (not that there's anything wrong with that; it gave him the chance to think a lot before making a final, commital decision and allowed him the time to work out, or at least get a good feeling for, the various nuances of the position), and then we reached this position:
Here he uncorked the fantastic 78.f4!! Perhaps it's the only try in the position, but it's still pretty gutsy, especially without so much time on the clock. (Again, see the previous parenthetical - he gave himself more time to work it out by doing "nothing" for 27 moves first.) White was able to combine threats from the queen on the kingside with penetration by rooks on the queenside, and although Carlsen was ultimately able to get the queens and a pair of rooks off the board, his position was hopeless. 90.Ra7! and 91.h7! were excellent moves, dominating Black's rook, and when Carlsen finally resigned Vachier-Lagrave was about to collect just about every Black pawn. (For example: 96...f2 97.Ra1 f1Q 98.Rxf1 Ra8 99.Rd1 Ra2 100.Rxd6 Rg2+ 101.Kxf6 and so on.)
Alexander Morozevich pulled to within a point (to equality on traditional scoring, but he's still a point back on 3-1-0 system they're using in Biel) by defeating Fabiano Caruana. (Caruana, sadly, is not within a point of anyone. His score of -3 =2 has him in clear last place, but he's young. He'll back and then some.) The Catalan is a gambit, though in many of the main lines Black declines it, but Morozevich accepted and held the extra c-pawn. Black's Semi-Slav-like pawn mass on the queenside is a great endgame asset, and Morozevich eventually won with it.
45...e3 was a particularly nice move, leaving White an unpleasant choice. If he takes with the pawn, then 46...Rxd5 followed by ...Rd2 gives him terrible problems on the second rank. If, as in the game, he arranges things to recapture with the rook, it gives Black several tempi to bring his king in contact with the queenside mass. Functionally speaking, Black wound up a king ahead, and White resigned after Black's 52nd move.
Finally, Yannick Pelletier drew on the white side of an actual Semi-Slav against Alexei Shirov. Oddly, both sides had dangerous kingside attacks in an ending, and the game finished with a perpetual. Shirov is tied with Vachier-Lagrave for third, while Pelletier is proving not to be mere cannon fodder. After a first-round loss to Carlsen, he has drawn his last four games - no pushover at all!
Standings After Round 5 (3-1-0 scoring first, "real" scores in parentheses):
1. Carlsen 10 (3.5)
2. Morozevich 9 (3.5)
3-4. Vachier-Lagrave, Shirov 6 (2.5)
5. Pelletier 4 (2)
6. Caruana 2 (1)
Tomorrow is a rest day; they'll commence the second cycle on Monday. Tournament site here.