Carlsen recovers excellently

Magnus Carlsen has recovered excellently from his harsh defeat against Viswanathan Anand in the tenth round. Today it was he who forced his opponent to resign after a kingside attack. And things went surprisingly easy. After the opening, Ivanchuk seemed to have made only one mistake, after which White's attack already looked almost irrisistible. Carlsen's tournament is a big succes already; he's now just half a point behind Anand, because the Indian drew against Morozevich.

The Russian opened like in his successful game against Leko but Anand deviated early with 5..d5. Soon an ending was reached where White gave up the bishop pair to force Black to play with an isolated queen's pawn. White's pieces also looked a bit ackwardly placed but Vishy didn't press and was OK with adding another half point. Aronian-Leko ended in a draw too; the only thing worth mentioning was the Hungarian's original manoeuvring with one of his rooks. Peter Svidler really seems to be going for 14 draws; against Topalov he forced peace with a combination that led to a perpetual.



Standings after round 11:

  1. Anand                         7
  2. Carlsen                      6,5
3-5. Aronian, Ivanchuk, Svidler   5,5
  6. Topalov                       5
7-8. Morozevich, Leko             4,5

Magnus Carlsen, in great shape in Linares | Photo: Macauley Peterson

More Linares photos at Flickr!