Report of round 6 - Report of round 6

Loek van Wely and Boris Gelfand followed the latter’s game versus Peter Leko from the Tal Memorial - a game that the Dutchman was not aware of. As the line played is not giving white anything, Loek offered a draw on move 16, and Boris accepted.

Veselin Topalov is back at 50% after his second win in a row, this time against Peter Leko. The Bulgarian’s games in this tournament have been somewhat see-sawish, and this one was no exception. In a dynamically equal Najdorf, white was a little better, thanks to his well- placed Nc6, but black got counterplay because of his passed e-pawn, and pressure against white’s isolani on d5. When the aforementioned pawns were exchanged, a drawish queen and bishop endgame arose. Unfortunately for Peter, he completely underestimated the strength of the central pawn duo when he exchanged queens with 49.Qxe4? (see diagram 2), and the bishop ending was completely won for Veselin.

Magnus Carlsen continues to impress, and is now alone at the pinnacle. Today he took out Judit Polgar in a most convincing manner. He was slightly surprised in the Nimzo, expecting black to play the 4...0-0 variation, but when he employed Kasimdzhanov’s idea of 10.e3, it was his opponent who was on unfamiliar ground. The Norwegian wisely entered a line where he gives up a kingside pawn to exchange queens, and maintain a much superior structure -- “I was slightly underdeveloped, but had the bishop pair. This is quite nice for white”, Magnus said. Black was drifting with 15...a6?!, where 15...N6e5 at once was better. Now white tactically managed to solve his sole problem of developing Ng1, by the wise manoeuver of 18.Rd1 and 19.Ne2! (see diagram 1). If black was to take the f-pawn with say 19...N6xf3 20.Nf4 and Nxd5 was coming, regaining the material and opening the position in white’s favor. On move 23 black’s last practical chance was to have tried 23...d4 and after 24.Nd5 Nce5 “there was no immediate win” -- Magnus. Absent that try, black had to give up one pawn, and then another, and the rest as they say, was a pure matter of technique. In his press conference, Carlsen joked, after being asked of his pre tournament hope of 50%, that it is quite a realistic wish. And then some!

An early novelty in Vishy Anand - Vassily Ivanchuk - 7...Nh5!? - was an attempt to take advantage of white’s move order. Usually white plays 6.h4, where black automatically replies with 6...h5. Anand tried to aggressively push his kingside pawns, but Chuky did not castle, and quickly aimed for a queen trade. As that exchange seemed inevitable and leading to a drawish position, the point was quickly split.

Vladimir Kramnik - Levon Aronian was a 100+ move saga. White deviated on the 25th move of a wild semi Slav line, while following a Radjabov - Anand game from 2006. In the tightrope-walk position that occurred, perhaps black needed to try 28...Rf6!? and not 28...Qf6?!. Before long, Vlady’s pieces were swarming in domination of the board. What’s worse, Levon’s king was somewhat compromised, and he was very low on time, so everyone was expecting a quick knockout. Black managed to steer the game into a double rook ending, which was lost, but required accurate play. The endgame would require long analysis, but it is likely that white should have omitted 48.h5, so as to maintain that square for his king in the future. After some moves, white was forced to give up his prized a-pawn for black’s h-pawn, when the theoretically known endgame of rook plus f- and h-pawn appeared. According to the table bases the Armenian defended stubbornly and correctly for a long time, but with just seconds left, he blundered with 103...Kf7? (see diagram 3) - 103...Ra5+ was the only move - and eventually lost on time. A tragic loss for Aronian after such a tough fight.

The exchange Ruy Lopez made another visit today, in the game between Teimur Radjabov and Michael Adams. Afterwards the Azeri said that Mickey plays different lines in the variation, and that he mostly prepared for those. Black played well, finding the strong 14...Rd8! (see diagram 4), after which white’s advantage is miniscule. “It was a tricky game”, said Radja after the game, and mentioned that 17.Nb3!? was worth another look, in place of the game’s 17.Nf3. Adams chose the best piece set up with his rooks on the f-file, and when his next plan was to place his bishop on the stronghold of d4, the position was completely balanced and a draw was agreed.

In a quiet Italian game between Shakryar Mamedyarov and Pavel Eljanov, white came out with a slight plus after the opening. In the post-mortem he regretted 13.Be2?! and suggested 13.Nf1!? in its place. He also questioned the decision to trade 19.Nxb6, thinking that keeping all his options with 19.Rad1 should have been preferred. In the endgame that arose, Shak said he completely missed Pavel’s king-travel all the way to c7 - a fine idea that secured black’s safety. After much shuffling and trying to make some headway in a closed position, no real progress was made, and so peace was announced.