Carlsen wins again in Foros
Magical Magnus conjures win over Shirov
Round 5 at Foros and yet another elite Grandmaster crumbles in the face of Magnus Carlsen's relentless pressure. Alexei Shirov is a formidable player and has himself come close to the World Championship crown, but today he became Carlsen's latest victim.
Shirov answered 1.d4 with the Slav defence and Magnus chose the popular 'Moscow' variation in reply. A balanced opening developed into an even middlegame, but as in previous games, Magnus kept creating tricky problems for his opponent to solve and soon Shirov fell into time trouble as he sought to find the best answers.
It was on the 61st move that Shirov finally cracked, allowing Magnus to catch his King in a mating net.
Elsewhere on another exciting day, the closest challenger to Magnus failed to keep up the pace as Sergey Karjakin lost with the Black pieces against Andrei Volokitin. The other decisive games saw Nisipeanu put Van Wely to the sword in a Najdorf Sicilian and Svidler employed his favourite Grunfeld defence to good effect against Onischuk.
Vassily Ivanchuk fought hard against Dmitry Jakovenko, but an extra pawn in a Knight ending was not enough and the game ended all-square after 72 moves.
Magnus Carlsen now leads by a clear 1.5 points with a very impressive score of 4.5/5. If the world rankings were published today then Carlsen would be ranked second in the world, with only World Champion Vishy Anand ahead of him. Is it a matter of time before Magnus is No.1 and also World Champion?
The full results in round 5:
| Carlsen, Magnus | - Shirov, Alexei | 1-0 | 63 | D43 | Anti-Meran Gambit |
| Volokitin, Andrei | - Karjakin, Sergey | 1-0 | 44 | E37 | Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2 |
| Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | - Van Wely, Loek | 1-0 | 42 | B90 | Sicilian Najdorf Variation |
| Alekseev, Evgeny | - Eljanov, Pavel | ½-½ | 15 | C65 | Ruy Lopez Berlin |
| Jakovenko, Dmitry | - Ivanchuk, Vassily | ½-½ | 72 | B43 | Sicilian Paulsen |
| Onischuk, Alexander | - Svidler, Peter | 0-1 | 40 | D97 | Gruenfeld Russian |
The standings after round 5:
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2765 | * | . | . | ½ | 1 | . | 1 | 1 | . | . | . | 1 | 4½ |
| 2 | Volokitin, Andrei | UKR | 2684 | . | * | 1 | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | 0 | 1 | . | 3 |
| 3 | Karjakin, Sergey | UKR | 2732 | . | 0 | * | . | . | 1 | . | . | ½ | 1 | ½ | . | 3 |
| 4 | Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2746 | ½ | . | . | * | ½ | ½ | . | . | 0 | . | 1 | . | 2½ |
| 5 | Eljanov, Pavel | UKR | 2687 | 0 | . | . | ½ | * | . | . | 1 | ½ | . | . | ½ | 2½ |
| 6 | Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | ROU | 2684 | . | ½ | 0 | ½ | . | * | ½ | . | . | . | . | 1 | 2½ |
| 7 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2740 | 0 | . | . | . | . | ½ | * | . | 1 | ½ | ½ | . | 2½ |
| 8 | Shirov, Alexei | ESP | 2740 | 0 | ½ | . | . | 0 | . | . | * | . | 1 | . | 1 | 2½ |
| 9 | Alekseev, Evgeny | RUS | 2711 | . | . | ½ | 1 | ½ | . | 0 | . | * | . | . | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | RUS | 2711 | . | 1 | 0 | . | . | . | ½ | 0 | . | * | ½ | . | 2 |
| 11 | Onischuk, Alexander | USA | 2664 | . | 0 | ½ | 0 | . | . | ½ | . | . | ½ | * | . | 1½ |
| 12 | Van Wely, Loek | NED | 2677 | 0 | . | . | . | ½ | 0 | . | 0 | 1 | . | . | * | 1½ |
