Bryne: On an eventful day with plenty of exciting games, it appeared a trifle unfortunate that despite playing a beautiful game World Champion Viswanthan Anand had to settle for a draw against Sergey Karjakin in the sixth round of the Norway super Chess tournament, late Tuesday night.
Magnus Carlsen of Norway pressed and pressed to carve out a victory in what could be described as a tight squeeze against Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan after the game appeared to be heading for a draw.
Levon Aronian dazzled in a miniature against Jon Ludwig Hammer, unleashing plenty of fireworks to win a volatile game. The only peaceful, un-eventful encounter was a draw between Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Wang Hao of China. Though the tussle between Hikaru Nakamura of USA and Peter Svidler failed to produce a decisive result, the game was anything but dull.
Sergy Karjakin hangs on to his sole slender lead with 4.5 points and has Carlsen closing on him with 4 points. Aronian and Nakamura follow next with 3.5 points each and behind them are Anand and Svidler with 3 points apiece. The event is still open with three more rounds remaining. Topalov and Radjabov have logged 2.5 each, Wang Hao has 2 points and Hammer brings up the rear with1.5 points.
Anand was keen on winning was evident by the fact that he declined the early exchange of queens in a Ruy-Lopez Berlin against Karjakin. Anand was on the aggressive, an indication given by the pawn thrust on the 22nd turn.
Soon Anand rolled his other Kingside pawns and rooks took up position to launch a major offensive. Karjakin’s King had to virtually flee from the King side to the queen side in search of safety.
After the exchange of pieces the queen and double rook each ending appeared to favour
Anand. A rook move on the 48th turn took out all the fizz out of the position whereas Anand could have been in the driver’s seat after grabbing the pawn. A much relieved Karjakin then hung on to draw after 57 moves.
A disappointed Anand quipped “ I was incredibly close but did’nt see it.”