Round 5 at M-Tel Masters
Mighty Chucky axes all his rivals
Besides the anti-draw rules in force in Sofia, there is also apparently another rule that everyone must lose to Vassily Ivanchuk (pictured!).
Quite unbelieveably, Ivanchuk has now won ALL five of his games in the first half of the tournament. That's 3 wins with Black and 2 with White against some of the best Grandmasters in the world - including Topalov, a former World Champion.
Where on earth will it end? Next to try to stop the Chucky horror show is Radjabov, who started the run off with his loss in the first round.
In any other tournament Topalov, who also won today impressively against Bu Xiangzhi, would probably be leading on 3.5/5 and surely is the only player with any hope whatsoever of denying Ivanchuk a memorable tournament win.
Tomorrow (Tuesday 13th) is a rest day. Ivanchuk's opponents probably need it!
The results in round 5:
Veselin Topalov | 1-0 | Bu Xiangzhi |
Levon Aronian | 0-1 | Vassily Ivanchuk |
Ivan Cheparinov | ½-½ | Teimour Radjabov |
The standings after round 5:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||||||||
| 1 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2740 | * | * | 1 | . | 1 | . | 1 | . | 1 | . | 1 | . | 5 |
| 2 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2767 | 0 | . | * | * | ½ | . | 1 | . | 1 | . | 1 | . | 3½ |
| 3 | Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2751 | 0 | . | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | 2 |
| 4 | Cheparinov, Ivan | BUL | 2696 | 0 | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | . | 1 | . | 2 |
| 5 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2763 | 0 | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | . | 1½ |
| 6 | Bu Xiangzhi | CHN | 2708 | 0 | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | * | * | 1 |
