The Week in Chess

The sixth round of the FIDE Candidates in Khanty-Mansiysk saw some very tired errors whilst Viswanathan Anand had a low energy draw against Sergey Karjakin to retain a half point lead going into the second rest day.

Anand played a small improvement as white to Ruy Lopez Berlin theory and Sergey Karjakin had to be accurate for a little time before the game was drawn.

Levon Aronian passed up the chance to catch Anand by failing to beat Dmitry Andreikin in an interesting struggle where he got very casual over a number of moves in a winning position and allowed his opponent to escape in the endgame.

If what Aronian did was hard to believe then what to say about Peter Svidler's loss to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov? Svidler got at least equality by using the Leningrad Dutch for the first time. Mamedyarov seems to have struggled against this in the past. A middle position was reaching requiring precise calculation and both players start to struggle. It was Svidler's position that eventually collapsed. After 21...b5 Svidler should stand a bit better. Mamedyarov saw near equality but he wanted more with 22.Qe3 which would have led to a difficult position after 22...Qd7 which neither player saw, 22...bxc4 isn't a great move, 23...Qc8 is awful and is best refuted by 24.Rd1, 24.h4 isn't bad but by 24...Rxa2 Svidler should hold the draw according to both players. Finally 24...h6 is just incomprehensible giving away a pawn for nothing. Mamedyarov wrapped things up very quickly. A strange game and one that might seriously affect Svidler for a few rounds.

The game of the day was the one flagged up before the event, the first classical game between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik since 2008. Their bitter match in Elista in 2006 will probably mean they never have a normal professional relationship again. For many year one or both the players seem to have made it clear they wouldn't play in a tournament where the other is competing (although both will play in Norway in June). Neither player offered a handshake at the start or end of play.

The game itself was a damp squib, over almost before it started. Topalov played the very sharp 8...Be5 which he thought objectively not very strong but good enough for one outing. Kramnik mentioned computers and computer analysis many times in his delayed post-game interview. He implausibly claimed he didn't know he had to attend the one with Topalov and returned later presumably to avoid losing 5% of his prize money. Kramnik said he was trying to get the position away from computer analysis as soon as possible and this seemed to have stopped him concentrating on actually playing. First Kramnik played the dubious 10...f5 (maybe 10...Nxe5 is even good for him) probably overlooking the power of 11.Bh2. Then 11...b6?! is also dubious (he must now at least try 11...f4). Most probably Kramnik was already busted and his position collapsed a few moves later. Topalov gave a quite dignified press conference talking just about the game but his manager (or at least helper for this event) Silvio Danailov couldn't resist some rather unedifying crowing about revenge being a dish best served cold on twitter.

After six rounds no-one seems to have made a compelling case that they should to win this tournament. This will suit Anand just fine, he retains a lead he gained early and has barely expended any energy since then in drawing his games. It could all get very tense at the end and anyone on 50% or above can legitimately claim to be still in the race. Or it might be Anand needs just one more win and no-one will be able to catch him.

Notes and comments to the games in the PGN file and photos and report from FIDE are in the body of the article.

Rest day Thursday.

Round 6 Standings: Anand 4pts Aronian 3.5pts, Topalov, Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Svidler 3pts, Karjakin 2.5pts and Andreikin 2pts

Friday Round 7: Karjakin-Aronian, Svidler-Anand, Kramnik-Mamedyarov, Andreikin-Topalov.