Black Is OK At Tata Steel

It was a black day in the A Group at the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.  There were four decisive games in round six and they all favoured the player with the black pieces.

Vladimir Kramnik finally opened his winning account against his old foe Alexei Shirov in an utterly wild Scotch Game. 

Magnus Carlsen won in just 33 moves with the Berlin defence to the Ruy Lopez against Jan Smeets.  That makes his results against the Dutch players in the event +2 -1 =0.

Anish Giri came unstuck against some clever play from Nepomniatchtchi in a Gruenfeld, and Nakamura displayed his endgame prowess once again to beat L'Ami and rejoin Anand as joint leader.

Shirov is unimpressed as Kramnik tries to make the first move with the black pieces

Fashion model Magnus Carlsen kibitzes on the L'Ami v Nakamura game

And that's how I did it! Nepo demonstrates his win against Giri (all pics from the official Facebook page)

The action hotted up in group B, with only one drawn game in round six. Luke McShane defeated top seeded rival Wojtaszek to keep his nose in front of Efimenko, while Wesley So earned his second consecutive win with the black pieces to move up to third place.

In the C Group leader Daniele Vocaturo lost to Tania Sachdev, allowing 14-year old Ukrainian prodigy Illya Nyzhnyk to join him at the top of the standings.

Brains and beauty - Tania Sachdev beat Daniele Vocaturo in round six

For all the games and more information visit the official website www.tatasteelchess.com

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