When It Rains In Qatar, It Doesn't Always Pour

Some parts of Qatar received up to 25mm of rainfall on Friday's rest day, but that didn't lead to many storms on the top boards when action resumed at the 2015 Qatar Masters Open.
After a draw between GM Wesley So and tournament leader GM Magnus Carlsen on board one, eight players on boards two through five had a chance to erase the margin with the world champion. All failed to do so, with each of the games ending drawn. Of that octet, GM Anish Giri came the closest.

(Photo right: A chess set on sale in Doha's Souq Waqif)

Let's start by looking at the super-GM matchup at the top of the tables. So played Carlsen for the fourth time in 2015, after never having played him before this year began.

A bird's-eye (or should it be "falcon's-eye"?) view of board one. (Photo: David Llada for Qatar Masters Open)

The American held his own in the first two contests before falling victim to a very Carlsen-esque squeeze at the Sinquefield Cup. Today the Berlin airlifted somewhere else -- the now-dominant system against the Ruy Lopez took a backseat in several games to variations of the Closed Spanish.
Once the center pawns traded, the players didn't strive for much and agreed to terms in a level position. On the final move, Carlsen can even trade off his only "weakness" with 39...d5 if he had so desired.