Linares Round 5 & 6

After the first of two rest days at Linares, joint leaders Topalov (pictured) and Grischuk clashed in round 5 and it was Topalov who took the full point.

It could have been a different story, but Grischuk let time trouble spoil a winning position to lose an exciting game, albeit with too many inaccuracies to make it a classic.

Debutant Gashimov cheered all Benoni fans by sticking with the embattled defence and winning a nice game against Vallejo.

Finally, Aronian pushed hard against Gelfand in a rather less memorable encounter, but had to settle for a draw.

So Topalov led by a full point going into round 6, where he took on Vallejo.  Vallejo played energetically with the black pieces, but hopelessly mishandled the clock, and blundered a whole rook away in desperate time trouble.

Gashimov and Gelfand achieved no more than half a point each, in the sort of game that gives the Petroff a bad name.

Last to finish in round 6 were Grischuk and Aronian.  Aronian sacrificed the exchange for a pawn, but the game eventually ended as a draw after 101 moves.

All these modern Grandmasters getting into such horrendous time-trouble reminds me of a quote from the famously non-teetotal fourth World Champion Alexander Alekhine...

"The fact that a player is very short of time is, to my mind, as little to be considered an excuse as, for instance, the statement of the law-breaker that he was drunk at the time he committed the crime".

The standings after round 6: