Carlsen Leads At Amber

You can tell a lot about a competitor in any sport by how they react to adversity. When Magnus Carlsen lost badly in the first round at Amber he responded by going on a hot streak that has seen him win 9 games out of 10 played since then.

His latest victim was Boris Gelfand, who had been playing well himself after a similarly unfortunate start.  Carlsen conjured a kingside attack culminating with checkmate in the middle of the board in the blindfold game, and got the better of the Israeli again after evading perpetual check in the rapids.

Carlsen's blog continues to be an informative insight into his games.

Vassily Ivanchuk was held to a draw in both games by Ruslan Ponomariov, leaving Carlsen as the sole leader in the overall standings on 9/12.

Gelfand and Carlsen clash at Amber (picture from the official site)

Vladimir Kramnik faltered in round six by losing to backmarker Smeets in their blindfold game, allowing the Dutchman to climb off the bottom of the overall standings with his first win of the event. 

Alexander Grischuk continued his good from by winning a spectacular blindfold game against Peter Svidler involving a queen sacrifice, and Sergey Karjakin recorded a 2-0 defeat of Dominguez to send the Cuban into last place.

The full results in round 6:

The overall standings after round 6:

Some games from round 6 are below.  All games are available at the official site.