Norway Chess Rd. 6: Harikrishna and Eljanov win

Before the sixth round Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was only half a point behind tournament leader Magnus Carlsen. With a win in round six the French grandmaster could have taken the lead himself. However, winning against Carlsen is not that easy, even if you play with White.

Vachier-Lagrave and Carlsen once again discussed the intricacies of the Berlin Defense and with 12. f3 Vachier-Lagrave chose a less popular move which more or less forced White to sacrifice a pawn. This material investment gave "MVL" a certain initiative but then Carlsen gave a piece to liquidate into a drawn endgame. However, the World Champion still had to work a bit before Vachier-Lagrave finally agreed to split the point.

Qualifier Nils Grandelius had Black against Pavel Eljanov and for a long time managed to keep the balance in the Fianchetto-Variation of the Grünfeld but close to the time control the Swedish grandmaster lost control and Eljanov could win.

Pentala Harikrishna played the second decisive game of the round. Against Giri's 1.e4 he opted for the French Defense and 8...b6 in the Classical Variation. Giri tried his luck on the kingside and in the centre but Black's counterplay on the queenside turned out to be stronger.

The game between Li Chao and Veselin Topalov was drawn thought the Chinese grandmaster showed enterprising chess. In the Moscow Variation of the Semi-Slav Li Chao sacrificed a pawn with 16.d5 and in return got active play for his pieces. However, he found no way to increase his pressure and White's initiative gradually dwindled until the game finally wound up in a rook endgame that led to a draw. A draw was also the result of the encounter between Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian.

Results of round six

Games of rounds 1 to 6

Standings after six rounds

Schedule and results of Norway Chess 2016

Live commentary on Playchess

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