Magnus Wins At Last In Bilbao

Round five in Bilbao, and Magnus Carlsen finally managed to win a game in this powerful double round-robin event.

Carlsen's enterprising opening play against Shirov (17. Na7! is an amazing conceit) was rewarded with an endgame which the silicon monsters said was a walk-over.

Back in the human world, real problems had to be overcome and Carlsen finally forced Shirov's resignation by threatening to sacrifice his queen on g7, simplifying to a won king and pawn ending.

Nice to see the "Kid" get a win after suffering a miserable tournament so far, but it's way too late to compete for the overall prize.

Anand managed to hold Kramnik to a draw today, and needs to win in the last round tomorrow with white against Carlsen (!) and hope that Kramnik fails to beat Shirov with black.

If the final scores are tied between Anand and Kramnik there will be two blitz games, and if necessary a sudden-death game to decide the winner.

The standings going into the final round are: