MTel R5 Express: Topalov beats Kamsky

Round five express

Standings

Round 5 wrap-up: World #1 Veselin Topalov ended his winless streak and Gata Kamsky's dream run with an excellent attacking game. The FIDE champ came out of the opening with a solid plus and then played a powerful exchange sacrifice to rip away at Kamsky's king. It's very hard to find a long-term defense for Black after 26.e6! Bxe6 27.Rxe6 fxe6. The black rooks are out of play and the white bishops bring terrible pressure. We cravenly suggest running the king to the queenside with, say, 33...Rg8 followed by by ..Rdf8, Ke8, Kd8, etc.

The attacking exchange sac is the trademark of some of Topalov's best games during his rise in the past year or so. He has now won three consecutive games against Kamsky. The last was at Corus in January. Before that, he beat him at Dos Hermanas in 1996!

With the other games drawn in unspectacular fashion, Kamsky and Anand share the lead on 3.5/5 at the halfway point. Svidler and Topalov are still in contention with even scores and Topalov is a notoriously strong closer. Last year in this event he was on -1 at the half and finished by scoring 4.5/5 to take clear first place! So maybe he's right where he wants to be. Ponomariov and Bacrot are out of the medal hunt on -2 but won't want to leave winless. Tuesday is an off day.

Games annotated by GM Mihail Marin will appear in separate article

Picture gallery

The game of the day, where Gata Kamsky met his match

Vishy Anand and Peter Svidler at the start of round five

What does he have in store for me? Ruslan Ponomariov vs Etienne Bacrot

• Official web site

Schedule and results