LCC R6: Hurricane Carlsen is upgraded to Category Five

Round six report

With summaries by GM Alejandro Ramirez

London continues to be a bloody battlefield as the decisive results keep pouring in! Even the dullest of games took a turn for the worse for one of the players, and the single draw of the round, Aronian-Kramnik, was a very entertaining game itself!

After this interlude the game Magnus Carlsen vs Judit Polgar can start in ernest

Carlsen-Polgar 1-0
Judit Polgar’s hedgehog setup allowed her to get decent chances straight out of the opening. After some inaccuracies Magnus Carlsen gained an edge, and he was able to exploit Black’s terrible piece positions with a very nicely timed e5! With her pieces gasping for air, Judit began to simplify the position by exchanging her dark squared bishop for an opponent’s knight. However, this proved to be a fatal mistake, as her kingside position had too many dark squared weaknesses and not a single piece that could cover them. Magnus swooped in and finished her off elegantly to reach 2864.

Magnus Carlsen on the attack – from move one

Aronian-Kramnik ½-½
Vladimir Kramnik used his trusty Berlin Defense against Levon Aronian, who has not shown us his best chess. This game was no exception, as Kramnik pushed throughout the entire game with his pair of bishops. But at the end Aronian was still solid enough to suffer just a little bit and end the game in a draw.

Anand-Adams 0-1
Adams neutralized Vishy’s opening preparation without any problems, and even got the pair of bishops to start playing for the win. However with some precise play, and with the help of a powerful knight on d5, White was able to parry all the threats and obtain an equal position. When all eyes had turned away from the game, which would surely soon end in a draw, Anand blundered huge after reaching the time control, with 41. Bc4?? Adams thought forever, probably in disbelief, but eventually played the killer sequence and it was all over.

McShane-Jones 1-0
Gawain Jones is not a man known for his love of material balance. Shortly after the end of a very theoretical English Opening he sacrificed an exchange for a pawn, the pair of bishops and good compensation. However his handling of the position afterwards wasn’t optimal, and slowly but surely White was pushing Black back, until eventually he broke with e4 and his advantage was undisputed. A clever attack forced some simplifications in which Black only had two disconnected pawns for a piece, and McShane picked up the point.

Replay all the games of the round

Standings (London scoring)

Standings (traditional scoring)

Pictures by Pascal Simon for ChessBase

Postgame analysis of the games by the players

Magnus Carlsen - Judit Polgar London Chess Classic 2012 Round 6

Vishy Anand - Mickey Adams London Chess Classic 2012 Round 6

Levon Aronian - Vladimir Kramnik London Chess Classic 2012 Round 6

Daniel King: Play of the day

Andrew Martin: Game of the Day (Anand vs Adams)

Live video coverage and commentary

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Pairings and results

The games – except for rounds four and nine – start at 2 p.m. or 14:00h British time = 15:00h CET, 17:00h Moscow, 7:30 p.m. Chennai, 22:00h Beijing, 01:00 a.m. Melbourne, 03:00 a.m. Auckland, 6 a.m. San José, 9 a.m. New York. You can check your location here. Naturally the games will be covered live on the official web site (below) and on Playchess. The games of round four begin two hours later, those of the final round two hours earlier.

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Links Official tournament site All games in PGN All ChessBase reports on the LCC 2012 (+ 2011, 2010 and 2009) The games will be 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 and get immediate access. Or you can get our latest Fritz 13 program, which includes six months free premium membership to Playchess.