Qatar Masters 2015 – Round six express report

Video impressions from the free day and round six by Vijay Kumar

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Round six express

By Nisha Mohota and Albert Silver

The top board game between So Wesley and Magnus Carlsen started with 1.e4 e5 and to the delight of the fans, it was not a Berlin! A complicated Ruy Lopez middlegame arose that ended in a draw after 39 moves. Kramnik, true to his style, decided to stay solid against the most adventurous player of the tournament, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The peace treaty was signed after 30 moves.

Of the top boards, the one game that truly entertained from end to end was the encounter between Anand’s former second Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Anish Giri. The sharp Sicilian Najdorf with its many complications and kings on two different sides of the board kept the fans guessing about the outcome. Once the smoke had settled, Ganguly’s attack had been diffused and Giri was a pawn up and poised to win. However, a dramatic Houdini act by Ganguly allowed him to somehow escape his fate, and they drew after 65 moves.

An example of another dramatic result was 17-year-old IM Vignesh (2422 FIDE) whose victories over Bartel Mateusz (2620) and Wei Yi (2730) rocketed him to the upper echelons of the standings. He had a chance to further his glory as he achieved a completely winning position against Chinese star GM Hou Yifan, but it was not to be and she escaped with a draw, leaving him with only a 2789 performance.

Wei Yi - Stefan Bromberger

The Chinese sensation GM Wei Yi showed his class today! He sacrificed his queen
against Stefan Bromberger with 22.Re6! and after 22...Rxd1+ 23.Kxd1,
left the German completely paralyzed due to the mate threat, and squeezed him to death.

Dmitry Jakovenko - Viktor Bologan

It’s not often that one gets to mate a strong GM! Jakovenko-Bologan started as an interesting Slav game
where, in a difficult position, the latter blundered into a checkmate by playing 27...Rxd5?? here.
Jakovenko must have enjoyed mating his strong opponent by 28.Re8 mate!

Carlsen leads with 5.0/6 and is followed by a pack of thirteen players on 4.5/6.

Replay games of round six

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Top pairings for Round 6 (26.12.2015 at 15:00 local time)

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