Dortmund Round 5

Tear down that wall!  Magnus Carlsen (pictured) wasn't born when the real Berlin Wall fell in 1989, but so far in Dortmund he has made short work of the Berlin "Wall" defence, beating it twice in the first half of the event.

In round 5 in was the turn of Naiditsch to try to blunt Carlsen's attacking flair with this most stubborn of defences, and despite some pressure from Carlsen he looked to be holding on.  However, just after the time control disaster struck for the German as he overlooked a tactic and was left with a lost position.

After an insipid tournament so far, Peter Leko finally came to life with an excellent win against Etienne Bacrot, mixing positional skill and tactical nous to leave the Frenchman with no option but to resign on move 39.

Taking Leko's place as the pantomime villain in the eyes of neutral chess fans were both Kramnik and Jakovenko who agreed a draw after just 19 moves in an unbalanced position that really deserved to played to a finish.

Kramnik didn't like the view from his side of the board and offered a draw, and Jakovenko evidently decided that a certain draw was better than a possible victory and so agreed.  Boo hiss! 

Kramnik and Jakovenko's clash ended in a draw by mutual fear (pic from the official site).

So at the halfway point of the tournament, Magnus Carlsen leads on 3.5/5, ahead of Leko and Kramnik on 3/5.

Tuesday 7 July is a rest day, so the competition continues on Wednesday 8 July, with the sixth round.

The standings after round 5: