Kramnik Catches Morozevich In Tal Memorial
Alexander Morozevich's luck ran out in round six of the 2012 Tal Memorial. Despite some great creative attacking play against Hikaru Nakamura, he blundered near the time control and lost his first game of the tournament.
That allowed Vladimir Kramnik to join him as co-leader by beating tournament back-marker Evgeny Tomashevsky.
The big match-up of the day between world #1 Magnus Carlsen and world #2 Lev Aronian wasn't the classic we had all hoped for, but an interesting game ended in a draw after 60 moves.
Grischuk and Radjabov drew their game, but there was another decisive game in round six from Fabiano Caruana who took advantage of a time-trouble inaccuracy from Luke McShane in a tough battle.
Hikaru Nakamura (centre) won his first game by inflicting the first loss on Alexander Morozevich
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Vladimir Kramnik won his game to become joint leader with Alexander Morozevich
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Magnus Carlsen pressed, but Lev Aronian held for a draw in the big game
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Alexander Grischuk drew his game with Teimour Radjabov
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Fabiano Caruana earned his second win by beating Luke McShane
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The standings after six rounds:
| # | Name | Nat | Elo | Pts |
| 1 | Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2769 | 4 |
| 2 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2801 | 4 |
| 3 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2835 | 3½ |
| 4 | Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2784 | 3½ |
| 5 | Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2770 | 3½ |
| 6 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2775 | 3 |
| 7 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2825 | 2½ |
| 8 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2761 | 2½ |
| 9 | McShane, Luke J | ENG | 2706 | 2 |
| 10 | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | RUS | 2738 | 1½ |
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The pairings for round seven are:
| Teimour Radjabov | v | Fabiano Caruana |
| Lev Aronian | v | Alexander Grischuk |
| Hikaru Nakamura | v | Magnus Carlsen |
| Evgeny Tomashevsky | v | Alexander Morozevich |
| Luke McShane | v | Vladimir Kramnik |
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Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (except the Nakamura and Morozevich screenshot). Games via TWIC.
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The 2012 Tal Memorial super-tournament takes place in Moscow, Russia from 7-19 June.
The format is a 10-player single round robin, with rounds starting at 15:00 local time (11:00 UTC), except for the last round which starts two hours earlier.
The total prize fund is €100,000 with €30,000 going to the winner. The time control in operation is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves, and finally 15 minutes to a finish with an increment of 30 seconds from the start. No draw offers will be allowed before move 40.
The tournament schedule:
| Date | Time | Event |
| 7 June | 18:30 | Blitz Tournament |
| 8 June | 15:00 | Round 1 |
| 9 June | 15:00 | Round 2 |
| 10 June | 15:00 | Round 3 |
| 11 June | Rest Day | |
| 12 June | 15:00 | Round 4 |
| 13 June | 15:00 | Round 5 |
| 14 June | 15:00 | Round 6 |
| 15 June | Rest Day | |
| 16 June | 15:00 | Round 7 |
| 17 June | 15:00 | Round 8 |
| 18 June | 13:00 | Round 9 |
| 19 June | Departure |
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There will be live video coverage on chess.com/tv (scroll down for the schedule) as well as at the official website. The video coverage at the official website is available for replay here (Russian commentary) and also here (English commentary).
Last year Magnus Carlsen won the tournament, narrowly beating Lev Aronian on superior tie-breaks after both finished with a score of 5½/9.
In case of a tie in this year's event, the tie-breaks are:
- Number of games played with black
- Number of wins
- Result of direct encounter
- Koya system
- Sonneborn-Berger
