There was one victory today in the Superbet Chess Classic, with Fabiano Caruana defeating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on the white side of a Petroff in a battle between players sharing last place, but the other four games were drawn, mostly uneventfully.
Entering the round Wesley So was in clear first, half a point ahead of Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Bogdan-Daniel Deac. So achieved a very comfortable draw on the black side of a Symmetrical English against Levon Aronian, and Vachier-Lagrave also had a very easy time with the Black pieces against Ian Nepomniachtchi. In fact MVL was even pressing a little at one point, but after missing the chance to play 27...h5 Nepo was able to hunker down and save the game. Deac, however, had a crazy game against Alireza Firouzja. First he was much better, maybe even winning, but then in time trouble he blundered and was lost. Time trouble did its damage to Firouzja as well, and he squandered his winning chances in the last few moves of the time control - and on move 41 as well - to allow Deac to escape.
The last game - like Caruana-Mamedyarov a battle of tailenders - hit its high point on move 2. Richard Rapport essayed 1.e4 e5 2.Ne2!? It was good for a smile, but not an advantage, and Leinier Dominguez had little difficulty achieving equality and a draw. (All five games, with my comments, are here.)
The players have a rest day tomorrow, and on round 6 the following games will take place: