Carlsen wins Foros, already

With a round to spare, Magnus Carlsen secured clear first place at the Aerosvit tournament today. He drew with Volokitin (after trying hard, for a change) and Eljanov-Karjakin saw the same result.

It was a very good round today in Foros. Even Nisipeanu-Onischuk, a 19-move draw, was interesting as it brought back memories to the 2nd Fischer-Spassky match.

In the ninth game, Spassky lost quickly after 14...Kb7 15.e5! Be7 16.Rxd8 Bxd8 17.Ne4! Kc6? 18.axb6 cxb6 19.Nbxc5. Of course, Onischuk knew what was going on and equalized easily.

Eljanov's new move 10.a3 against Karjakin's Chebanenko didn't prove too dangerous, and with both sides looking at one bad bishop, one good one and a proud knight, everything was still equal.

Alekseev-Jakovenko followed the ancient game Averbakh-Rabar, Belgrade 1956 with 12.0-0 as the novelty that had been waiting for more than half a century to be played. Like a good wine, Averbakh's approach might have tasted Alekseev better because his own play got him into trouble. Black gradually reached a winning position but in timetrouble he seems to have missed the win twice: 38...a2! was fine, then White missed 39.Rh1 which draws instantly, like in the game, then again 39...a2! should have been played.

The other three games can be found down here.

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Eljanov-Karjakin, another friendly game between two locals.

Shirov wins - a result he sort of deserves by now.

After Svidler's birthday yesterday, today it was Andrei Volokitin's turn to receive the flowers - the grandmaster from Lvov, Ukraine was born 22 years ago. Magnus Carlsen has to wait one more day today receive his presents.

Links:

• Offici?ɬ´le website
• Partijen in PGN