One of the chess greatest Viswanathan Anand was the hero of Round 5 in Wijk aan Zee as he played an almost perfect game against young American Jeffery Xiong. It is Anand's first win since he turned 50 a month ago.

Round 5 of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament was played at the PSV Stadium in Eindhoven.  A PSV player Daniel Schwaab officially opened proceedings with a hit on the gong. It looked like Anand was poised to score right out of the gates. In a classical line of the French Defense Black gave up an opportunity to castle on move 7 and got prepared for a lengthy defense hoping to exploit White's pawn weaknesses later in the game. Probably Xiong was not fully aware of the subtleties of this adventurous line as he chose a rare move 8...h5 and then made an obvious mistake with 11...cxd4 - after that White had a clear plan of an onslaught on the King's side while Black was definitely struggling.

Anand was attacking energetically and the only time he missed the best continuation came on move 22 when he opted for a bit slow 22.Ne2. It didn't really change the outcome, but Xiong grabbed an opportunity to activate his pieces at the cost of a pawn. Psychology and experience helped Anand to finish the game - he offered queen exchange, and Xiong declined as he didn't want to suffer in a worse endgame. But it was a mistake - after 31.c4! Black's position fell apart and Jeffery was forced into a completely lost rook endgame anyway. Nice win by Anand - he is back to 50% after the drama in Round 2 versus So.

Alireza Firouzja returned to the top of the leaderboard after he beat Anish Giri. Giri was doing completely fine in one of the most double-edged lines of the Queen's Gambit Declined which was first introduced in 2011 in Grischuk - Aronian Candidates match and became popular after that, and until he lost a key tempo with 17...Be5 (the immediate 17...Qe7 that favors Black is strongly recommended by engines). Still, there was no real danger for Giri and the game was heading for a draw but Anish erroneously went for exchanges - first, he traded his bishop for a knight and then erred in the evaluation of a pawn endgame that turned out to be winning for White. A huge disappointment for Anish and Dutch fans.

Fabiano Caruana was also close to catching up with the leader Wesley So as he finally found a hole in Jorden Van Foreest’s opening preparation. In a sharp line of the English Opening (David Anton scored a spectacular victory versus Alexander Grischuk in this variation at the Grand Swiss) World #2 sacrificed a piece but got an overwhelming compensation for it. Had Fabiano played a natural 19.h3 move, most likely he would have scored his second victory but after 19.Rc4 van Foreest managed to spark much-needed chemistry between his pieces and timely reminded his opponent that he had an extra piece. In the final position, Van Foreest could have played for a win, but he was happy with a draw after such a bumpy start of the game.

The leader Wesley So didn’t have any chance for a win today as his opponent Vlad Kovalev was looking for a calm draw with White after a disastrous start and comfortably attained his goal.

Duda - Artemiev game was a completely different affair, a real thriller where both opponents missed their chances at some point. Jan-Krzystof Duda put the board on fire by sacrificing a bishop on move 21. Stockfish doesn't approve and recommends 24...fxg4 as a refutation of the White's plan. It's hard to blame Vladislav Artemiev though who opted for a more human-like 24...Bf6. Duda's attack continued and after an inaccurate 26...Qd7 he found 27.d5! to consolidate the advantage. Polish #1 missed a chance to win when he exchanged queens as pawn endgame was easy to hold for Artemiev.

Nikita Vitiugov is definitely disappointed with his result against Yu Yangyi. He had an excellent opportunity to take revenge for a tragic loss to the same opponent in the World Cup quarterfinals that is definitely still haunting the GM from Saint-Petersburg. In the Catalan, Vitiugov got the type of position to dream about but then went astray. Nikita will probably have hard time explaining why he offered a queen exchange letting his clear advantage go.

The World Champion's Magnus Carlsen troubles continue in his game against his second Daniil Dubov. Dubov helped Carlsen in his preparation for the last World Championship match against Caruana, and it definitely influenced the opening choices of both opponents. Still, Magnus told in the interview that he was happy with the results of the opening, but made a horrible mistake with automatic 17.Nc4 (17.Nf1 was the right path for the knight) and after 17...Qe6 had to switch to fighting for a draw once again. He made a "defensive pawn sacrifice" as he explained in the post-mortem and managed to save a half-point. Carlsen admitted that his "no-losing" streak had an effect on his play in the first rounds, but he was just not getting the positions he wanted after the opening. 

Tomorrow the tournament is returning back to Wijk aan Zee for an epic game Carlsen - Caruana.

Tata Steel Masters 2020 Standings after Round 5:

1-2. So, Firouzja - 3½; 
3-5. Artemiev, Caruana, Van Foreest - 3; 
6-10. Dubov, Xiong, Duda, Anand, Carlsen - 2½;
11-12. Giri, Vitiugov - 2;
13. Yu Yangyi - 1½;
14. Kovalev - 1.