Fabiano beat Karjakin in Altibox Norway Chess Round 5

Fabiano Caruana beat Sergey Karjakin in Altibox Norway Chess Round 5 to return to 50% while dragging his opponent down to the same level. That was good news for Magnus Carlsen, whose somewhat shaky draw against Vishy Anand meant he restored a one-point lead, since Mamedyarov-Nakamura and MVL-Aronian also ended in relatively uneventful draws. Ding Liren is out of the event after understandably deciding he needs to focus on recovering from hip surgery.

Sergey Karjakin dashed Caruana’s hopes in the final round of the 2016 Candidates Tournament, and he almost repeated the trick earlier this year in Berlin when he beat Caruana to take the lead with just two rounds to go. Karjakin was on a roll there, and it seemed he might also be building up momentum in Stavanger after his win over MVL. In Round 5, however, he suffered an almost complete reversal of fortune.