Report by Steve Giddins

Results of the day

Shirov wins again! The Latvian superstar won his fourth straight game, but in case you are wondering, it is not a record for the event – indeed, Shirov is still only halfway towards the 8/8 start made by Victor Korchnoi in 1968! The manner of Shirov's win was rather reminiscent of another great, his legendary countryman, Mikhail Tal. After labouring to prove anything substantial against the Petroff, Shirov made an objectively rather dubious piece sacrifice. However, it created enough practical problems to drive his opponent, Jan Smeets, into extreme time-trouble, and, despite the 30-second increment, the Dutchman blundered fatally in an unclear position.

Van Wely slumped to his third straight defeat. Ivanchuk chose the relatively rare 8.Qe2, and six moves later, van Wely was as good as lost.

Magnus Carlsen looked to be well on the way to his third successive win. However, after establishing a large advantage against Short's offbeat opening choice, he missed two potentially winning moves, to the anguish of his watching trainer.

Karjakin-Caruana saw White achieve the typical structural advantage from an Exchange Spanish, but Black held the draw without too much difficulty. Tiviakov had Kramnik in serious trouble, but the win slipped away in time-trouble.

From Chessbase.com