Carlsen Off The Mark In Sao Paulo

Magnus Carlsen won his first game of the Grand Slam Final Masters tournament in round 5 to bring Vassily Ivanchuk's undefeated run to an end.

Despite this first loss by Ivanchuk, he still leads the event by 3 points (using the 3-1-0 scoring system).

Hikaru Nakamura won his game with Vallejo Pons to move into second place.  Vallejo Pons is really having a tough time against this field.

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Vishy Anand could only draw with the white pieces against Lev Aronian, to leave them both level on points with Magnus Carlsen in third.

So the first half of the tournament is over and the players now pack up their luggage and fly to Bilbao, Spain for the second half running from 5-11 October.

The standings after round five:

Hikaru Nakamura is now a fixture among the world's elite

Games in the second leg in Bilbao are expected to start at 17:00 local time in Bilbao (15:00 UTC), apart from the last round which starts an hour earlier.

The Sofia-Rules are in operation, meaning that players can only reach a draw by mutual agreement if they have the permission of the arbiter. The 3-1-0 soccer-style scoring system is also being used.  The time control is 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 60 minutes to a finish, with a 10 second increment after move 40.

If there is a tie for first place, there will be a pair of blitz games, followed by a sudden death game if needed, to produce a winner. Ties for lower places will be decided by mathematical tie-breaks, starting with scores under the traditional 1-½-0 system.

Picture from the official website.