Qatar 2015 R05: Carlsen leads, eight follow

Qatar Masters 2015 Round five express

Full report from Doha will follow...

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Magnus Carlsen was in his element today! In a Grunfeld with 3.f3 that led to a sharp middlegame in which White wanted to attack on the kingside and Black on the queenside. Magnus first played some quiet defensive moves but then sacrificed his a-pawn with 17.h4 – the beginning of a very smooth attack. A few moves later he had blown open Li Chao’s kingside. Finally, Li had to give his queen not to get mated. After Carlsen had parried all counterthreats and the dust had settled he was winning.

After 17.h4!, the fans were glued to their computer screens and treated to a fine attacking display by Carlsen.

Carlsen won in 36 moves to become the first sole leader of the tournament.
He enters the rest day with 4.5/5.

The clash of the two elite players, Anish Giri and Wesley So ended in a fighting draw after 62 moves

The clash on board three between Maxim Matlakov and Vladimir Kramnik seemed to be heading towards a draw after the opening and the beginning of the middlegame. However, Kramnik showed what he is very good at – squeezing out a win from a very slight edge. He kept posing small problems to his opponent and reached a promising queen ending in which he sacrificed a pawn to push his passed d-pawn that finally helped him win!

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov continued to play exciting and entertaining chess. With his novelty 10.b4 he created a complicated and unbalanced position. Objectively, this was anything but sound but after his opponent Denis Khismatullin missed a couple of good opportunities to win or to get a clear advantage Mamedyarov finally managed to turn the tables and won in 38 moves.

The final position in the game Nikita Vitiugov vs. Zhang Zhong game. Black to move resigned
because he cannot parry White's threat against g7. A picturesque finish!

Video impressions from round five by Vijay Kumar

Photos by Katerina Savina

Pairings/Results Round 5 on 24.12.2015

Bo.	Ti.	Name	Rtg	Pts.	Res.	Pts.	Ti.	Name	Rtg
1	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2834	3½	1-0	3½	GM	Li Chao B	2750
2	GM	Giri Anish	2784	3½	½-½	3½	GM	So Wesley	2775
3	GM	Matlakov Maxim	2684	3½	0-1	3	GM	Kramnik Vladimir	2796
4	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2766	3	1-0	3	GM	Dubov Daniil	2655
5	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2748	3	1-0	3	GM	Khismatullin Denis	2654
6	GM	Yu Yangyi	2736	3	1-0	3		Xu Yinglun	2470
7	GM	Bologan Viktor	2654	3	½-½	3	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	2723
8	GM	Korobov Anton	2713	3	0-1	3	GM	Swiercz Dariusz	2646
9	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2622	3	½-½	3	GM	Ni Hua	2693
10	GM	Howell David W L	2688	3	0-1	3	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2648
11	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	2646	3	½-½	3	GM	Hou Yifan	2683
12	IM	Vignesh N R	2422	3	½-½	3	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2664
13	GM	Harikrishna P.	2743	2½	1-0	2½	GM	Ipatov Alexander	2619
14	GM	Bromberger Stefan	2521	2½	0-1	2½	GM	Jakovenko Dmitry	2737
15	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2724	2½	1-0	2½	GM	Zhang Zhong	2619
16	IM	Gagare Shardul	2470	2½	½-½	2½	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2710
17	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2710	2½	1-0	2½	GM	Bluebaum Matthias	2590
18	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2689	2½	0-1	2½	GM	Tregubov Pavel V.	2589
19	GM	Adhiban B.	2669	2½	0-1	2½	GM	Al-Sayed Mohammed	2520
20	IM	Wang Yiye	2438	2½	½-½	2½	GM	Duda Jan-Krzysztof	2663
21	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2648	2½	½-½	2½	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2542
22	GM	Khairullin Ildar	2647	2½	½-½	2½	IM	Yuffa Daniil	2504
23	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2644	2½	1-0	2½	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi	2513
24	WGM	Abdumalik Zhansaya	2390	2½	0-1	2½	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	2642
25		Raja Harshit	2325	2½	½-½	2½	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2638
26	IM	Pham Le Thao Nguyen	2319	2½	½-½	2½	GM	Grandelius Nils	2632
27	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2521	2	0-1	2	GM	Tomashevsky Evgeny	2744
28	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2513	2	+ - -	2	GM	Shankland Samuel L	2646
29	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2639	2	1-0	2	IM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2494
30	GM	Schroeder Jan-Christian	2511	2	0-1	2	GM	Piorun Kacper	2637
31	GM	Naroditsky Daniel	2628	2	1-0	2	IM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2442
32	WGM	Goryachkina Aleksandra	2493	2	0-1	2	GM	Lenderman Aleksandr	2626
33	GM	Shoker Samy	2489	2	0-1	2	GM	Bartel Mateusz	2620
34	GM	Lu Shanglei	2618	2	1-0	2		Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2414
35	IM	Sagar Shah	2441	2	0-1	2	GM	Hamdouchi Hicham	2597
36	GM	Vocaturo Daniele	2597	2	½-½	2	IM	Abhishek Kelkar	2393
37	IM	Aryan Chopra	2436	2	½-½	2	GM	Bok Benjamin	2594
38	GM	Esen Baris	2562	2	1-0	2		Firouzja Alireza	2372
39	FM	Rohan Ahuja	2426	2	½-½	2	GM	Rambaldi Francesco	2560
40	IM	Lin Chen	2532	2	1-0	2	IM	Tissir Mohamed	2346
41	GM	Xu Jun	2526	2	1-0	2		Roy Prantik	2370
42	WGM	Saduakassova Dinara	2407	2	0-1	1½	IM	Svane Rasmus	2529
43	IM	Vogel Roven	2439	1½	0-1	1½	GM	Wei Yi	2730
44	GM	Khotenashvili Bela	2496	1½	½-½	1½	FM	Basso Pier Luigi	2438
45		Fang Yuxiang	2438	1½	½-½	1½	GM	Zhukova Natalia	2488
46	IM	Padmini Rout	2437	1½	0-1	1½	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2486
47	IM	Saiyn Zhanat	2394	1½	½-½	1½	IM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2482
48	GM	Krush Irina	2468	1½	0-1	1½	IM	Karavade Eesha	2379
49	FM	Li Di	2389	1½	1-0	1½	FM	Moroni Luca Jr	2466
50	IM	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian	2385	1½	0-1	1½	IM	Ma Zhonghan	2463
51	IM	Ali Marandi Cemil Can	2454	1½	1-0	1½		Dai Changren	2328
52	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	2380	1½	½-½	1½	IM	Lorparizangeneh Shahin	2454
53	IM	Guramishvili Sopiko	2368	1½	½-½	1½	IM	Kashlinskaya Alina	2448
54	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	2260	1½	½-½	1½	IM	Firat Burak	2446
55	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2559	1	1-0	1½	FM	Goriatchkin Jouri	2318
56	IM	Nezad Husein Aziz	2425	1	1-0	1	IM	Batsiashvili Nino	2498
57	IM	Ezat Mohamed	2490	1	½-½	1	IM	Seyb Alexander	2425
58	IM	Sanal Vahap	2487	1	1-0	1	WGM	Pourkashiyan Atousa	2322
59	GM	Neelotpal Das	2475	1	½-½	1	FM	Gholami Aryan	2422
60	IM	Ly Moulthun	2462	1	1-0	1	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2377
61	FM	Haria Ravi	2416	1	0-1	1	GM	Carlsson Pontus	2433
62	FM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2429	1	0-1	1	WFM	Vaishali R	2313
63	IM	Li Ruofan	2372	½	0-1	½	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2451
64	WGM	Bartel Marta	2271	½	1-0	½		Siva Mahadevan	2400
65	IM	Slavin Alexey	2388	½	0-1	½	WIM	Bivol Alina	2344
66	WIM	Derakhshani Dorsa	2307	½	½-½	0	IM	Piasetski Leon	2287

Standings after five rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1
1	1	GM	Carlsen Magnus	NOR	2834	4,5	2946
2	3	GM	Giri Anish	NED	2784	4,0	2915
3	4	GM	So Wesley	USA	2775	4,0	2888
4	5	GM	Karjakin Sergey	RUS	2766	4,0	2848
5	2	GM	Kramnik Vladimir	RUS	2796	4,0	2848
6	7	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	AZE	2748	4,0	2848
7	34	GM	Swiercz Dariusz	POL	2646	4,0	2827
8	11	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2736	4,0	2807
9	30	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2648	4,0	2778
10	6	GM	Li Chao B	CHN	2750	3,5	2822
11	43	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	UAE	2622	3,5	2817
12	102	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2422	3,5	2809
13	14	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	POL	2723	3,5	2756
14	21	GM	Matlakov Maxim	RUS	2684	3,5	2722
15	9	GM	Harikrishna P.	IND	2743	3,5	2720
16	17	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	UKR	2710	3,5	2711
17	62	GM	Al-Sayed Mohammed	QAT	2520	3,5	2691
18	27	GM	Bologan Viktor	MDA	2654	3,5	2690
19	18	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2693	3,5	2684
20	10	GM	Jakovenko Dmitry	RUS	2737	3,5	2684
21	22	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2683	3,5	2676
22	33	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	RUS	2646	3,5	2673
23	13	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	RUS	2724	3,5	2646
24	24	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	RUS	2664	3,5	2610
25	52	GM	Tregubov Pavel V.	RUS	2589	3,5	2610
26	35	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	IND	2644	3,5	2601
27	36	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	2642	3,5	2579
28	78	IM	Gagare Shardul	IND	2470	3,0	2756
29	79		Xu Yinglun	CHN	2470	3,0	2750
30	39	GM	Piorun Kacper	POL	2637	3,0	2718
31	56	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	RUS	2542	3,0	2683

... 132 players

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Schedule for Playchess Commentary

Day	Round	Time	English	German
Wed 23 December	Round 4	3 PM	Daniel King	Thomas Luther
Thu 24 December	Round 5	3 PM	Simon Williams	Thomas Luther
Fri 25 December	Rest day
Sat 26 December	Round 6	3 PM	Mihail Marin	Thomas Luther
Sun 27 December	Round 7	3 PM	Simon Williams	Sebastian Siebrecht
Mon 28 December	Round 8	3 PM	Daniel King	Sebastian Siebrecht
Tue 29 December	Round 9	12 PM	Yasser Seirawan	Sebastian Siebrecht

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A Black Repertoire versus the Anti-Sicilians

Qatar Masters 2015 Round five express

Video impressions from round five by Vijay Kumar

Pairings/Results Round 5 on 24.12.2015

Standings after five rounds

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