Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk in action

The leader
The 5th King's Tournament in Medias, in the vicinity of Bazna, Romania, is underway. The six-player double round robin is particularly strong this year. Magnus Carlsen is back from a short break with a fine win over Hikaru Nakamura, whereas Vassily Ivanchuk also had a great opening day after downing Teimour Radjabov in a King's Indian.

The local Romanian player, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, is the only participant not rated in the World top thirteen, but he started with a solid draw against Karjakin. However he blundered a pawn in the endgame against Hikaru Nakamura in round two and lost.

The two strongest 'juniors' (players who were born in the 90's) are present, Sergey Karjakin, and of course Magnus Carlsen. The third stongest is Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (20th).

Standing  Name (World Ranking) Country Rating Age C C I I K K Na Na R R Ni Ni Score
1= Magnus Carlsen (2) NOR 2815 20 * * . ½ . . . . 1 . . .
1= Vassily Ivanchuk (5) UKR 2776 42 ½ . * * . . . . . . 1 .
3= Sergey Karjakin (6) RUS 2776 21 . . . . * * . ½ . . . ½ 1
3= Hikaru Nakamura (8)  USA 2774 23 0 . . . . . * * . . 1 . 1
5= Teimour Radjabov (13) AZE 2744 24 . . 0 . ½ . . . * * . . ½
5= Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (81) ROU 2659 34 . . . . ½ . . 0 . . * * ½

After the first week-end's play, Carlsen and Ivanchuk have 1½ points.

On Saturday they both had convincing victories, but their meeting on Sunday was a more balanced affair with neither player being able to obtain any advantage whatsoever.

The other games on Sunday were long-drawn out battles.

The Round 1 results were as follows.

White Black Result Moves ECO Opening
Magnus Carlsen - Hikaru Nakamura 1-0 38 D31 Semi-Slav Defence
Vassily Ivanchuk - Teimour Radjabov 1-0 35 E73 King's Indian Averbakh
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu - Sergey Karjakin ½-½ 20 E54

Nimzo-Indian Defence

Round 2:

White Black Result Moves ECO Opening
Hikaru Nakamura - Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 1-0 86 C96 Spanish Keres
Vassily Ivanchuk - Magnus Carlsen ½-½ 33 C84 Spanish with d3
Teimour Radjabov - Sergey Karjakin ½-½ 90 D12 Slav Defence

The official site gives more information, plus the possibility of following the games live

http://www.turneulregilor.com/

The games begin at 3.30 pm local time.

The games will be played from the 11th to 15th and from the 17th to 21st of June.


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