Both victories in round five can be blamed on time trouble problems for the vanquished.
Grischuk had a decent, if not better position from a complicated, and fashionable, line of the Najdorf, before getting confused in a rapidly changing position. The opening involved some 'cat-and-mouse' play: White played 6.Be3 (intending an English Attack with f3, Qd2 etc) and Black avoided this possibility with 6...Ng4. After the jockeying in the opening the Russian went on to obtain a fine position despite White's thematic piece sacrifice. Topalov's win shouldn't however be simply put down to his opponent's misfortune, the Bulgarian demonstrated exemplary technique to finish the job.
Another early B-f4 against the Modern Benoni, but fearing preparation Gashimov immediately deviated (as early as move seven) from his game against Gelfand. A complicated position was rather spoiled by Vallejo's time trouble, but Gashimov has again demonstrated that his tricky opening can generate difficult practical problems for White, even at the 2700-level.
In Aronian-Gelfand White's answer to the Semi-Slav took the opening away from well-trodden paths. Later Gelfand was somewhat outplayed and had to bail out in a Queen-and-opposite-bishop 'pseudo-ending' which however he was able to hold.
| Francisco Vallejo Pons | ESP | 2705 | 0-1 | Vugar Gashimov | AZE | 2759 | Modern Benoni | A61 |
| Lev Aronian | ARM | 2781 | 0.5-0.5 | Boris Gelfand | ISR | 2761 | Semi-Slav Meran | D48 |
| Veselin Topalov | BUL | 2805 | 1-0 | Alexander Grischuk | RUS | 2736 | Sicilian Najdorf | B90 |
Topalov now has good chances to win this tournament, and now if he manages another 3.5/5 he will overtake Carlsen in the world rankings!
| World Ranking | Name | Country | Present Rating | Career highest rating | Pre-Linares virtual rating | Points | wins |
| 2 | Veselin Topalov | BUL | 2805 | 2813 | 2805 | 3.5 | 2 |
| 7 | Vugar Gashimov | AZE | 2759 | 2759 | 2740.2 | 2.5 | 1 |
| 15 | Alexander Grischuk | RUS | 2736 | 2748 | 2756 | 2.5 | 1 |
| 5 | Levon Aronian | ARM | 2781 | 2786 | 2782.3 | 2.5 | 0 |
| 6 | Boris Gelfand | ISR | 2761 | 2761 | 2750.4 | 2 | 0 |
| 31 | Francisco Vallejo Pons | ESP | 2705 | 2711 | 2708.2 | 2 | 0 |
The other five players are all within half-a-point of each other.
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