London Chess Classic round 5

GM Daniel King was back today in the commentary box with GM Chris Ward. The other three commentators GM Jonathan Rowson, GM Stephen Gordon and IM Lawrence Trent were also in attendance at various points of the day.  Some more exciting chess today. Many of the games headed into the Ruy Lopez. The only game that didn't was GM Magnus Carlsen's game against GM David Howell. That game started with the Sicilian Defence Najdorf variation. GM Magnus Carlsen won his game which ended with him being a piece up. GM Nigel Short lost his game against GM Hikaru Nakamura in a risky line of the Closed Ruy Lopez Marshall Attack. He entertained the audience during the interview after the game with a little chess related song. GM Michael Adams and GM Vladimir Kramnik drew their game and so did GM Viswanathan Anand and GM Luke McShane. This leaves the top scorer's in the tournament so far very close to each other. GM Magnus Carlsen now joins GM Viswanathan Anand and GM Luke McShane at the top of the table with 9 points. GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Vladimir Kramnik are tied at 8 points. GM Michael Adams is not far behind with 6 points. Leaving GM David Howell with 2 points and GM Nigel Short with 1 point quite far behind the rest. However considering a win gives 3 points the players at the bottom of the table could still make a recovery in the next two rounds. Neither of them however can win the tournament. Its hard to say who will win since the top players are so close together. Its all down to how they perform in the next two rounds. It would seem that winning the next two games rather than drawing either of them might be the only way to be certain of victory. I'm not certain however considering who each player is facing in the final two rounds that any of them could win two in a row. The end of the tournament might be very close. It might be more than one player sharing the top spot at the end of the tournament.

Michael Adams	½-½	Vladimir Kramnik
Vishy Anand	½-½	Luke McShane
Hikaru Nakamura	1-0	Nigel Short
David Howell	0-1	Magnus Carlsen