Carlsen Keeps Lead With Draw
By Arvind Aaron


Viswanathan Anand played the longest game of the sixth round with white while other games were drawn quickly as the players seemed to get ready for their journey to Linares, Spain. Once Anand came out of the pin, the game was drawn with the Indian promosing the peace offer. Anand and Aronian tie for the second-third places with 3.5 points while Carlsen leads with four points from six rounds. One more round remains to be played at Morelia, Mexico and the action for the last lap will move to Linares from March 2-10.

Carlsen and Leko drew by a quick repetition. Aronian gave up a draw rather too quickly against Topalov with the white pieces and it was a surprise. The two Russians, Morozevich and Svidler also drew quickly. Morozevich has understood that things are not going well for him and having the white pieces helped him get away the draw quickly.

This round was all of 90 moves for the four games. Anand castled queen side against the Sicilian of Ivanchuk. A little pawn exchange in the centre of the board was the only cause of excitement. Thereafter, the round fell flat as boring of the six played so far. It is a 8-player double all-play-all and eight rounds remains to be played. Prize money is not disclosed and it is appearance fee that counts in this premier super category event of the world.

The results (round six): Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 4 drew Peter Leko (Hun) 3, Levon Aronian (Arm) 3.5 drew Veselin Topalov (Bul) 2, Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 3.5 drew Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 3, Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 2 drew Peter Svidler (Rus) 3.

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Published on : 26th Feb, 2007