Round 6 Report

Results of the 6-th round have placed the participants of this tournament in the crosstable in practically full conformity to their ratings. Kasparov did not manage to get almost "scheduled" point in White game against Leko as Kramnik and Anand finally stopped their drawish streaks - each has gained a victory and both wins were based on the results of the opening preparaion. It is necessary to notice that generally in this round the weight of opening knowledge was very essential for the results. One more "strange" game was played by Vassily Ivanchuk. Some more details now.

Kasparov - Leko: frankly speaking it is rather difficult to understand what has forced Kasparov to select his 1-st move by the king pawn. In case of 1.d4 Leko would most probably play Gruenfeld where Kasparov's advantage in the opening preparation would be definitely decisive. In the game, however, it was Sicilian where Leko has applied rather interesting novelty 8…Bb7!?

Position after 8.Ne4 (8…Bb7!?)

Caught by surprise Kasparov has spent a lot of time but couldn't find the direct refutation. Soon the game has passed into the ending with the uneven coloured bishops, where White possessed some better chances because of weak black pawn a7, however Leko defended quite well - draw.

Anand - Svidler: In response to 5.Qb3 Gruenfeld Peter has chosen one more time the system with 7…a6, which seems to bring him mostly troubles (last time - with Kasparov in Hoogovens). Understanding that Black's play in comparison with the game Kasparov - Svidler can be easily improved, Vishy has selected more straightforward (and dangerous) plan connected with 10.h4. Svidler's novelty 16…Bf5 (instead of played recently 16…Bg4 or 16…Nb4) can be hardly called an improvement. Some precise moves by Anand gave him decisive attack - 1 : 0.

Kramnik - Adams - In Nimzo-Indian with 4.Qc2 the opponents have played rather long theoretical line which transposes directly into the ending slightly better for White. Without some detailed opening analyse I'd like to notice, that 14…f5 (instead of 14…c5) seems to be more reliable. Adams followed what is quite interesting on Kramnik's footsteps (however, Vladimir played this line only in blitz and rapid chess). On the 17-th move Michael tried to improve on Black's play in the game Ljubojevic - Kramnik (Monaco, 1998) and played 17…cd (instead of 17…b5). As a result after 3 next moves he landed in strategically hopeless position.

Position after 20…Rfd8?! (21.Bh4!)

For b2 pawn Black must give at least two. Kramnik converted his advantage to win quite confidently - 1 : 0.

Ivanchuk - Topalov: the same Nimzo-Indian with 4.Qc2, however White acted less successfully and already after the opening was forced to sacrifice a pawn for just symbolic compensation. Then this compnsation disappeared and Topalov has achieved the obviously won position. Desperate attempt of resistance undertaken by Ivanchuk (42.d5!?), however, has beaten out Veselin from a track, and in some moves he has lost all the advantage - draw.

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