Tal Round 6: White bloodbath

X Jubilee Tal Memorial is taking place from 25 September to 6 October 2016 in the Moscow Museum of Russian Impressionism. The tournament will be a continuation of the program "Chess in Museums", which is being implemented by the Russian Chess Federation together with the Charitable Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko. The General Partner of the Russian Chess Federation for the X Tal Memorial is the state company "Russian Highways" ("Avtodor").

The prize fund for the event is 200 thousand USD.

The tournament is a round-robin over nine rounds played at 100 minutes for 40 moves plus 50 minutes for 20 moves and 15 minutes until the end of the game with 30 seconds for each move starting from the first. The chief arbiter is International Arbiter Anatoly Bykhovsky.

Round Six

Photos by Eteri Kublashvili

Kramnik, Vladimir 1-0 Gelfand, Boris
Gelfand essayed a sharp Najdorf Sicilian against Kramnik's 1.e4, but it paid no dividends. I personally believe the line Gelfand chose is not promising for Black, and Kramnik's positional advantages grew and grew. Eventually, the endgame was simply hopeless.

Simply put, Boris hasn't caught a single break this event

Tomashevsky, Evgeny ½-½ Anand, Viswanathan
Tomashevsky's play against the isolated pawn secured him a small advantage, but it was truly slight as Black's defense in the endgame did not seem that complicated. In a position where White got pretty much as good of a bishop endgame as he could get, it was clear that with only one weakness there was nothing that Tomashevsky could do to make progress.

Svidler, Peter 1-0 Li Chao
Peter must have liked his position yesterday against Shakhriyar so much that he played something along those lines with colors reversed!

Caissa listened today to one of her prodigal sons

Li Chao's secret weapon had no effect today

Nepomniachtchi, Ian 1-0 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
Nepomniacthchi regains the tournament lead with this important victory. His Italian game continues to be dangerous, as the idea of 7.a4 gains more and more popularity. Mamedyarov at no point had full equality, and the pawn that White achieved on e5 by move 24 truly cramped Black's position. Shakhriyar tried to shed material to remove the pressure, but it simply did not work out. First with an exchange, and then trying to set up a fortress with rook and pawns against a queen. However, it was clear that due to zugzwang the enemy king was going to invade, so the Azerbaijani player conceded the full point.

Ian is the new leader going into the second rest day

Also important: not only did Nepo pass Giri in the tournament standings, he is also now ahead of Giri in rating! Temporarily, according to 2700chess.com, Nepomniachtchi is 10th in the world, relegating Giri to 11th.

Aronian, Levon 1-0 Giri, Anish
This game blows the tournament wide open, as somebody has finally stopped Giri. More than that, Aronian did it with an excellent finishing flourish:

Anish was finally halted in Moscow, and even surpassed by Ian!

Levon is now tied for third with +1

Tomorrow is a rest day in Moscow

Replay today's games

Select games from the list below the board

Standings after Round Six

Schedule and pairings

Links Official tournament site All blitz games in PGN All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.