Red hot Carlsen makes it four in a row!

Magnus Carlsen is demonstrating why he is the highest-rated player in the world with his fourth win in succession.
Boris Gelfand won with Black and now occupies second place alone.

Carlsen's win eventually occurred deep in the endgame but the seeds were sown early in the middlegame. A tactical flurry led to a series of exchanges, leading to a double-rook ending, during which Carlsen won a pawn. Radjabov regained the pawn but Carlsen had meantime placed both rooks on the seventh rank creating persistant threats. Eventually the Norwegian was able to further simplify into a winning rook ending with two extra pawns.

White	Rating	Country	Result	Black	Rating	Country	No. Moves	Opening
Ruslan Ponomariov	2733	UKR	0.5-0.5	Wang Yue	2752	CHN	63	Slav/Grünfeld
Magnus Carlsen	2813	NOR	1-0	Teimour Radjabov	2740	AZE	64	Sicilian Accelerated Dragon
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu	2672	ROU	0-1	Boris Gelfand	2752	ISR	40	Petroff's defence

Gelfand's win came at the expense of Nisipeanu. The Romanian provoked some tactical play, but Gelfand was able to find a defence and simplified into a clearly superior rook ending which he converted at ease.

Ponomariov kept a small pull from the opening and then found a way to steal a pawn, but Wang Yue's strong knight enabled him to hold the balance.

Position	Name	Country	Rating	Pre-tournament rating change	World Ranking	points
1st	Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2813	-	1	5.5
2nd	Boris Gelfand	ISR	2741	-9	11	4.5
3rd	Teimour Radjabov	AZE	2740	-	13	3.5
4th-6th	Wang Yue	CHN	2752	+3	8	2.5
4th-6th	Ruslan Ponomariov	UKR	2733	-4	18	2.5
4th-6th	Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu	ROU	2672	+11	59	2.5

Carlsen will be gaining further rating points on this performance. His expected score is 6.2/10 and if, for example, he finishes with three draws he will gain eight Elo points and therefore pass the 2820 barrier for the first time.

Veteran campaigner Boris Gelfand is sitting pretty in second after Radjabov's defeat.

Gelfand won with the Petroff.

The subsequent rounds can be followed live at 1.30 pm (London), 2.30 pm (Paris) or 3.30 pm local time. The exception being the last round that will start two hours earlier.

For this possibility and other information see the Official site