Carlsen Leads In Bazna

Magnus Carlsen leads with a score of 3.5/5 at the halfway point of the double round-robin Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania.

After winning with the King's Gambit in round four (see previous report), Carlsen used the Dragon to win against Nisipeanu in round five.

Boris Gelfand demonstrated his smooth endgame technique to convert an advantage against Ponomariov to move back to a plus score.

This year the Bazna tournament is part of the Grand Slam series, substituting for the cancelled MTel event.

Magnus Carlsen's thoughts on the tournament so far can be found at his Arctic Securities blog.

The official website can be found here.  Games start each day at 15:30 local time (EEST=GMT+3), except for the final round when they kick off at 13:30.  The second rest day is on June 23.

The standings after five rounds:

Carlsen picture from the official site.