75th Tata Steel Chess 2013 R6: Magnus Carlsen Takes Sole Lead

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

In round 6 of the 75th Tata Steel Chess Tournament the highest rated player in the world, Magnus Carlsen, took the sole lead for the first time. The Grandmaster from Norway achieved little with White in a Ruy Lopez against Ivan Sokolov. However, the Dutchman failed to exploit a small edge and drifted into a queen-and-minor-pieces endgame that was slightly worse for him, after which Carlsen won in his habitual style. 

For a while it seemed like co-leader Viswanathan Anand was also going to win, but his opponent, countryman Pentala Harikrishna, managed to hold a worse endgame. The third co-leader, Sergey Karjakin, had a comfortable draw with Black versus Fabiano Caruana in a Berlin Defence.


Standings of grandmaster group A

1 Carlsen, M. 4.5
2 Anand, V. 4.0
3 Karjakin, S. 4.0
4 Harikrishna, P. 3.5
5 Aronian, L. 3.5
6 Nakamura, H. 3.5

7 van Wely, L. 3.0
8 Leko, P. 3.0
9 Wang, H. 3.0
10 Caruana, F. 2.5
11 Giri, A. 2.0
12 L'Ami, E. 2.0
13 Hou, Y. 2.0
14 Sokolov, I. 1.5

Round 6 - Friday the 18th
van Wely, L. - Wang, H. 1-0
Nakamura, H. - L'Ami, E. ½-½
Giri, A. - Hou, Y. 0-1
Caruana, F. - Karjakin, S. ½-½
Aronian, L. - Leko, P. 1-0
Carlsen, M. - Sokolov, I. 1-0
Harikrishna, P. - Anand, V. ½-½

(Click on links to view games and post-game video comments with Chess King.)

Holland's Anish Giri and China's Hou Yifan produced the hardest fight of the day. The latter had had a rough time thus far in Grandmaster Group A, but today things went her way. She quickly achieved an advantage with Black in a Sicilian Dragon, the same opening she lost to yesterday, and although Hou Yifan needed 85 moves to bring home her advantage, the full point was never really in doubt.

Levon Aronian of Armenia was another player to win after a long endgame, showing that his extra pawn was worth more than Peter Leko's pair of bishops. Holland's Loek van Wely bounced back from his loss in the previous round with a win at the cost of Wang Hao. The Chinese Grandmaster sacrificed his b-pawn early on in a g3 King's Indian. The Dutchman gladly accepted, consolidated his extra material and eventually profited from the dividends of his own b-pawn.

Lastly, Hikaru Nakamura gave it a go with White against Erwin l'Ami, but got away easily when the Dutchman accepted a draw on move 41 in a better position.

In Grandmaster Group B, leader Richard Rapport had to content himself with a draw this time, unable to do anything with his minute advantage against Russia's Maxim Turov. In second place, one point behind with 4 out of 6, are 16-year-old Daniil Dubov (see picture), Sergey Movsesian and Arkadij Naiditsch, who finished his game with a surprising and deadly combination against Nils Grandelius

In Group C Italy's Sabino Brunello joined the lead by defeating Holland's Lisa Schut, as leader Fernanda Peralta could only muster a draw against Krikor Mekhitarian.

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