Reggio Emilia round 5

Zoltan Almasi takes sole lead

David Navara started to move forward after beating legendary Viktor Korchnoi in the fifth round. From the White side of the Tarash line in French defence, which Korchnoi knows better than his own backyard, Navara gained strong initiative on the kingside after Black's sloppy Kf8-Kg8. Striking 28. c4!! marked the decisive advantage for Navara, who quickly finished game with couple of accurately calculated blows.

David Navara - Viktor Korchnoi

Mihail Marin employed rare 10...g6 in the Open Ruy Lopez against Zoltan Almasi. Curiously, Viktor Korchnoi already played this against Anatoly Karpov in their 1978 WCh match, but also against Almasi on 2002. Almasi deviated from this game with 12. Nd4, but Marin replied with new move Qd7. However, resulting structural damage, combined with the weakness on c6, proved to be too much for Marin and he was forced to give over right before the time control.

Zoltan Almasi

Ni Hua steadily increased space advantage against Sergey Tiviakov's Scandinavian defence to finally reach a positive transformation in the pawn structure. Concentrated heavy pieces on the kingside allowed cute sacrifice 36. Rxg7 to force Black's resignation.

Round 5 results:

David Navara (CZE 2656) - Viktor Korchnoi (SUI 2611) 1-0
Zoltan Almasi (HUN 2691) - Mihail Marin (ROM 2551) 1-0
Hua Ni (CHN 2641) - Sergey Tiviakov (NED 2643) 1-0
Michele Godena (ITA 2535) - Konstantin Landa (RUS 2678) draw
Vugar Gashimov (AZE 2663) - Pentala Harikrishna (IND 2668) draw

Round five standings:

1. Zoltan Almasi (HUN 2691) 3.5; 2-5. Konstantin Landa (RUS 2678), Pentala Harikrishna (IND 2668), Hua Ni (CHN 2641) and Vugar Gashimov (AZE 2663) 3.0; 6-9. Mihail Marin (ROM 2551), Sergey Tiviakov (NED 2643), David Navara (CZE 2656) and Viktor Korchnoi (SUI 2611) 2.0; 10. Michele Godena (ITA 2535) 1.5;

Tournament website