Magnus Carlsen chose a quiet line of the Queen's Gambit Accepted where the queens came off
in the opening. White's slight lead in development enabled him to keep a pull and then the tangible advantage of the bishop pair. The opening of the game led to a quick win for White as Nisipeanu's disparate forces could not resist White's initiative.
In the game between Ivanchuk and Karjakin, an imprecision in the early middlegame cost the veteran dear. Karjakin found a 'bolt from the blue' snatching a kingside pawn with a combination involving a piece offer. Ivanchuk could do no better than enter dubious complications.
Radjabov and Nakamura played out a sharp line of the Sicilian. Nakamura reacted with an early ...e5, which is rare against Bg5. He then snatched the b-pawn, just like in the notorious 'Poisoned Pawn Variation' and won the exchange in complications that followed. In compensation, Radjabov had more active pieces and was able to keep the balance.
The situation at the half-way stage is as follows:
| Standing | Name (World Ranking) | Country | Rating | Age | C | C | K | K | Na | Na | I | I | Ni | Ni | R | R | Score so far |
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen (2) | NOR | 2815 | 20 | * | * | . | ½ | 1 | . | . | ½ | 1 | . | ½ | . | 3½ |
| 2 | Sergey Karjakin (6) | RUS | 2776 | 21 | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | . | . | 1 | . | ½ | . | ½ | 3 |
| 3 | Hikaru Nakamura (8) | USA | 2774 | 23 | . | 0 | . | ½ | * | * | ½ | . | 1 | . | . | ½ | 2½ |
| 4= | Vassily Ivanchuk (5) | UKR | 2776 | 42 | ½ | . | 0 | . | . | ½ | * | * | . | 0 | 1 | . | 2 |
| 4= | Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (81) | ROU | 2659 | 34 | . | 0 | ½ | . | 0 | . | 1 | . | * | * | ½ | . | 2 |
| 4= | Teimour Radjabov (13) | AZE | 2744 | 24 | . | ½ | ½ | . | ½ | . | . | 0 | . | ½ | * | * | 2 |
The previous results were as follows.
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 remaining games will be played from the 17th to 21st of June.
