FIDE Candidates 2016 - Video Recap Round 6

Opening: E15: Queen's Indian: Nimzovich variation (exaggerated fianchetto)

Player(s): Aronian, Nakamura

GM Ronen Har-Zvi and GM Larry Christiansen recap Round 6. A round full of action, drama and a bit of comedy. Without doubt the most interesting round in the Candidates' so far. Anand outplayed Svidler in a Ruy Lopez. Like in the old days, the great Vishy was able to set up a crisp attacking plan, after Svidler's 18 ...Nb2, which in post-mortem looked like a fatal mistake. "0.Ng5 is already winning. Peter didn't feel like giving his Queen away to try to resist the attack, but his choice led to a crushing loss in a few more moves. A game that could sign the path of the two players in the Candidates': Anand is back at +1, with a great spirit now, whereas Peter got whipped off the board in 20 moves, and that's not something that helps your morale. Caruana-Karjakin was a rollercoaster. At move 20 Karjakin decided to renounce to his Queen to open the game and find attacking chances. After some maneuvering, where it didn't seem that either played had the advantage, Karjakin sacrificed his knight, to give the "d" pawn mobility and have it reach the second row, backed-up by a rook. But it wasn't enough, and Karjakin had to defend brilliantly to survive. Caruana was forced to give back his Queen, and the players eventually reached a drawn position. An amazing game. Aronian-Nakamura was a dramatic piece of chess. Nakamura fought hard, avoiding subtle traps and pushing for the advantage. The players entered an equal endgame after an intense game. At that point, Hikaru grabbed his King, but then realized he could not move it, and let it go. Unfortunately for him, the rules of chess state that once you touch a piece, you have to move it. And moving the King in that position meant mayhem for the US number two. A bad experience for Nakamura, especially after such a hard-fought 6-hour game! In the live rating list, Karjakin is back in the top 10, and at the moment he seems to be the favorite for the final victory in this event. Tomorrow is the second rest day. Play resumes on Saturday, at 8AM EDT, 12 noon GMT, 13:00 CET, with live commentary in ICC.

Teacher's library (558) E15 Aronian Nakamura recap