18 March 2016
Entering a Diarchy Epoch
Round six of the candidates tournament in the review of Eteri Kublashvili.
Round six, besides covering yet another step towards the event’s equator, has not only been the longest and so far the highest goal scoring round, but has also changed the overall standings in the Candidates Tournament by giving it as many as two leaders.
The game of Vishy Anand and Peter Svidler lasted 24 moves.
Anand – Svidler
In this Ruy Lopes position Peter opted for a rather risky line, much to Anand’s surprise: 13…exd4 14. cxd4 d5.
Instead of advancing the pawn the former champion anticipated the 14...cxd4 move, at which point he was unsure whether his position was any better at all.
15. e5 Ne4
In the resulting position it must have been the intermediary 16. axb5 axb5 that Peter failed to pay enough attention to, because it was only after that that it was followed it up with 17. Nxe4 dxe4 18. Rxe4.
In this position, as was proven by subsequent developments, the 18…Nb3 trick failed to work out for Black.
The game saw 19. Rxa8 Bxa8 20. Ng5 Nxc1 21. Qh5 h6 22. Qxf7+ Kh8.
According to Anand, it was not yet late for White to go down in this position should he play inaccurately. For example, 23. Qg6 Qxg5 24. Qxe8 Ne2+ followed by Qc1+ and Qxc2.
However, White has a very precise resource at his disposal 23. Rg4! Qa5 24. h4! – the last move is also very important from Anand’s point of view. When this move was made on the board, Black chose to resign the game.
The second pair to leave the playhall was Fabiano Caruana and Sergey Karjakin. The Russian embarked upon a creative queen sacrifice, but after the game admitted that he could have probably played in a more solid and risk-free manner. However, Sergey was defending very accurately in a position featuring non-standard material ratio, and in the end he came up with a precise move, which secured him in a draw.
Here is what Sergey Karjakin has to say, "Fabiano has resorted to a new plan in the opening. I was ready for it to a certain extent, making a few very quick moves, but then his level of preparation proved deeper than mine. In any case, a key moment happened when I sacrificed my queen when it was not necessary to do so, and the subsequent game required me playing in a very precise fashion."
Caruana – Karjakin
When going for the line that involves a knight sacrifice 28…d4!? 29. Qxc4 d3 30. g5 d2 31. gxf6+ Kh8 (the only response to keep balance in the position) 32. Bf3 Be4 33. Kh2,…
… 34…Bd5! was a vital resource for me to come up with.
After 34. Qg4 Rg8 35. Bd1 Rxg4 36. hxg4 h6 the players agreed to a draw.
Yet another difficult save was pulled off by Veselin Topalov in his game against Anish Giri. On move three (after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6) the Bulgarian grandmaster lashed out with 3. h4, having managed to have his opponent startled to a certain degree. According to Giri, he recalled Veselin winning only a single game at the previous Candidates Tournament, but that was a game where he did advance his pawn to h4. Anish chose to defend actively by sacrificing a pawn on the queenside, and soon the position evolved into a mix of the King's Indian Defence without Nc3 and the Benko Gambit. In the long struggle that followed Black managed to outplay his opponent, first restoring the material balance and then winning a pawn to his good. However, Topalov has once again demonstrated tenacity in defense, and peace was agreed in the knight ending.
Now, we have at last come to the point of speaking about the second winning hero of round six. Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura chose to sort things out in the Queen's Indian defense. Increasing his positional pressure, the Armenian grandmaster has reduced the game into a better rook ending, having outplayed his opponent in time trouble and ended up winning a pawn. Nakamura had to defend the rook ending with "three versus two" on the kingside.
When it already seemed that Black managed to build up some sort of a fortress, Nakamura touched his king, quickly withdrawing his hand with the words “I adjust.” After the end of the game Hal Bond, Chief Arbiter Assistant, said, “He was testing the limits.” While the referees were present on spot, the questioning glance of the American was met by Levon shaking his head and reminding about the touch-move rule. After that Nakamura grabbed his head with his hands, realizing that any king move was going to cost him the game.
Aronian – Nakamura
The touched king retreated to f8, and after 75. Kf6 Ra6+ 76. Rd6 Ra8 77. h5 Kg8 78. f5 Rb8 79. Rd7 Rb6+ 80. Ke7 Rb5 81. Rd8+ Kh7 82. Kf6 Rb6+ 83. Rd6 Rb7 Black resigned the game. Being in a state of frustration, Nakamura didn’t show up for the press conference.
Prior to day off the lead is shared by Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian with 4 points each. Trailing half a point behind them is Viswanathan Anand.
Round seven features the following encounters: Svidler - Caruana, Karjakin - Aronian, Nakamura - Topalov, Giri – Anand. The round promises hot battles, the gem of it being the game of tournament leaders.
