A Happy Birthday For Ivanchuk At Amber
Vassily Ivanchuk has had a rough time so far at the 2011 Amber tournament, but on day six he celebrated his 42nd birthday by beating world champion Vishy Anand in their rapid game.
It was a strangely lop-sided round with all the blindfold games ending up as draws, and all the rapid games being decisive.
One of the losers was leader Lev Aronian, who succumbed to Alexander Grischuk but he still keeps his lead with an overall score of 8.5/12.
Magnus Carlsen was slightly fortunate to escape with a draw in his blindfold game with Sergey Karjakin but recovered to win the rapid.
Hikaru Nakamura slipped further off the pace with a loss to Boris Gelfand, and Veselin Topalov fared no better, losing to Vugar Gashimov.
Vladimir Kramnik's win against Anish Giri condemned the 16-year old star to the bottom of the leaderboard.
Cheer up Chucky! You beat the world champion on your birthday!
The results on day six:
| Blind | Gelfand-Nakamura | ½-½ |
| Grischuk-Aronian | ½-½ | |
| Anand-Ivanchuk | ½-½ | |
| Blind | Topalov-Gashimov | ½-½ |
| Kramnik-Giri | ½-½ | |
| Karjakin-Carlsen | ½-½ | |
| Rapid | Nakamura-Gelfand | 0-1 |
| Aronian-Grischuk | 0-1 | |
| Ivanchuk-Anand | 1-0 | |
| Rapid | Gashimov-Topalov | 1-0 |
| Giri-Kramnik | 0-1 | |
| Carlsen-Karjakin | 1-0 |
The standings after round six:
| 1 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2808 | 8½ |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2815 | 7½ |
| 3 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2747 | 7 |
| 4 | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2817 | 7 |
| 5 | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2733 | 6 |
| 6 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2779 | 5½ |
| 7 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2776 | 5½ |
| 8 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2775 | 5½ |
| 9 | Gashimov, Vugar | AZE | 2746 | 5½ |
| 10 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2774 | 5 |
| 11 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2785 | 5 |
| 12 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2690 | 4 |
Ivanchuk won the game of the day prize for his victory against Anand
Aronian loses his first game of the event
Carlsen reclaimed second spot with his win against Karjakin
Nakamura's tough event continued with a loss to Gelfand
Married life seems to have taken the edge off Topalov's play...
Photos: Max Euwe Association.
