Aronian and Anand qualify - we're in Mainz!

After a smooth trip I've now arrived in Mainz. The tournament is taking place in the big Congres Centre of the town (that also listens to the name Rheingoldhalle), along the river Rhine. One of the first you meet when you enter is Artur Jussupow, giving live commentary next to two television screens showing the games. Then you walk by what is the largest book stall I've ever seen, that of Schach Niggemann, a famous chess shop in Germany.

The four players play on a nicely lit stage in a big hall where yesterday and today many chairs were filled with spectators, listening to GM audio commentary through headsets. As from tomorrow, during the day this big hall will be filled with hundreds of extra players, for the big FiNet Open Chess960, amongst them many top grandmasters (to mention a few: Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov, Shirov, Grischuk, Kamsky, Akopian, Almasi, Volokitin, Karjakin, Sasikiran, Landa, Sargissian, Hariskrishna, Navara, Gashimov, Negi and Naiditsch). These big names will almost all participate in both the Chess960 rapid tournament and the regular rapid tournament on Saturday and Sunday. This should be good for some excellent footage! (Tonight the camera, plugged into the charger, is waiting impatiently.)

Here are the games of the second day. I was allowed to use the viewer of the tournament site, which need one mouse click each time:

Round 4:

Round 5:

Round 6:

Final standings:

1. Aronian      4,5
2. Anand        4,0
3. Bacrot       2,0
4. Kasimdzhanov 1,5

Aronian and Anand qualified for the four-game final, tomorrow at 18:30 CET.

The playing hall with the audience

The stage

Chief organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt announcing the 6th round.

Kasimdzhanov-Aronian (round 5)

Anand-Bacrot (round 5)

Aronian-Anand (round 6)

Bacrot-Kasimdzhanov (round 6)

The players during the press conference afterwards, around 21:30 CET tonight.