The Week in Chess

World Champion Magnus Carlsen beat world number 2 Fabiano Caruana with an aggressive display with black in one of the games of the day. Carlsen played the Sicilian and in response to the Rossolimo Variation he played the unusual 8...e5. Caruana played the cautious 9.0-0 which seems to be new and then Carlsen attacked on the Kingside whilst Caruana broke through on the Queenside. Computers liked white for a long time but it can't have been easy for white and he eventually traded to a roughly balanced endgame. 29.Bxf4 seems to have been inaccurate and 31.Kf1 was the losing move after 31.Rf4! Carlsen quickly won after that.

Wesley So joined Carlsen on 4/6 after beating Baadur Jobava on the black side of a Giuoco Piano. The game was tremendously sharp, So was glad to grab the two bishops early on and he got some attacking chances. The key moments were 25.Qxc7 which came as a surprise to So and the computers show can be refuted by 25.Bf5! 25.Bb5 allows 25...Qc3 when both So and computers say the position is unclear or equal. Instead 26...Qxd6 was bad even though the position was still difficult for both sides So got things under control in a few moves and Jobava resigned.

The other game to finish decisively was a mind boggling game between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ding Liren. This was an advanced Caro-Kann where Ding played very quickly into a position that possibly can only be understood with deep computer preparation. He at least equalised at one stage but 27...Qd5 was an error (27...Qc2 was better) as 29.Rd6 getting behind his passed pawn came with tempo. Vachier-Lagrave won a pawn and with the more active pieces also the game.

Leader Vassily Ivanchuk was held to a draw by Ivan Saric who traded down to a draw in what looked like an accurate game. Hou Yifan and Radoslaw Wojtsazek drew a Sicilian where Hou could have forced a draw at one stage but decided to play on but it didn't change the balanced assessement of the position. Levon Aronian played very creatively against Loek van Wely's Trompowsky Attack and the game was drawn by perpetual attack on Van Wely's Queen. Van Wely said he thought Aronian was in bad shape but still tricky and he felt he maybe missed a chance. Teimour Radjabov sacrificed two rooks to open up Anish Giri's King in a Taimanov Sicilian and with Giri threatening mate in one had to take a perpetual check.

Round 6 Standings: 1 Ivanchuk 4.5pts 2-4 Wojtaszek, Carlsen, So 4pts 5-7 Vachier-Lagrave, Ding Liren, Giri 3.5pts 8-9 Caruana, Radjabov 3pts 10 Saric 2.5pts 11-14 Hou Yifan, Van Wely, Aronian 2pts 14 Jobava 0.5pts

Round 7 pairings: Sat 17th Jan 12:30 GMT Ding Liren-Van Wely, Saric-Vachier-Lagrave, Giri-Ivanchuk, So-Radjabov, Wojtaszek-Jobava, Carlsen-Hou Yifan, Aronian-Caruana