Chess: How does Black win?

THE recent candidates' matches was certainly all the poorer for the self-imposed absence of Magnus Carlsen – but the Norwegian ace is back to what he does best of all, and at the halfway point of the Kings Tournament he not only leads the field but has also reclaimed the No 1 spot.

Carlsen clinically outplayed local hero Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in round five to move to a +2 unbeaten score of 3.5/5 to take a half point lead from his nearest rival. With an almost 2900 performance, he has yet again seen replaced world champion Vishy Anand at the top of the unofficial live rating list.

Not far behind though there lurks Sergey Karjakin of Russia, who in round five hit his former fellow countryman Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine with a true bolt out of the blue in today's diagram with the spectacular 16…Bxh3!! The point being that 17 gxh3 loses immediately to 17...Qf6 18 Kg2 Nh4+! 19 Nxh4 Qxf2+ 20 Kh1 Qxg3 21 Re2 Qxh4.

Not to be ruled out in sole third place is Hikaru Nakamura of the USA, who continues to add more points to his live rating standings. Carlsen, Karjakin and Nakamura look likely to be potential world championship rivals into the future – and the trio look set to give us a portent of things to come with an exciting second half of the Kings Tournament in prospect.

Standings: 1 Carlsen, 3.5/5; 2 Karjakin, 3; 3 Nakamura, 2.5; 4-6 Radjabov, Ivanchuk and Nisipeanu, 2.

V Ivanchuk - S Karjakin

5th Kings Tournament, (5)

Giuoco Piano

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 c3 Nf6 5 d3 0–0 6 0–0 d6 7 h3 Ne7 8 Re1 Ng6 9 Nbd2 c6 10 Nf1 d5 11 exd5 Nxd5 12 Ng3 h6 13 Bb3 Re8 14 Bd2 Bb6 15 Qc2 Be6 16 Rad1 Bxh3!! 17 c4 Ndf4 18 c5 Nxg2 19 cxb6 Qf6 20 Nh2 Nxe1 21 Rxe1 axb6 22 Bc3 Be6 23 Re3 Nf4 24 Rf3 Qh4 25 Bd2 Bg4 26 Qc4 Be6 27 Qc2 Bxb3 28 Qxb3 Re6 29 a3 Rae8 30 Qb4 Rf6 31 Qe4 Ree6 32 Ne2 Nxe2+ 33 Qxe2 Rxf3 34 Qxf3 Rg6+ 35 Kh1 Rf6 36 Qg3 Qxg3 37 fxg3 Rd6 0–1