Summer Time, and the Losing is Easy!
Round six of the 2012 European Individual Chess Championships was the first day after the clocks moved one hour forward for the start of Daylight Saving Time in Europe.
Sadly, this change seemed to catch out seven players who were defaulted because they failed to arrive on time for their games - six of them Georgians! Former fourth placed competitor IM Shota Azaladze was among them.
The games that did take place made the contest even tighter, creating a 10-way tie at the top on a score of 5/6.
Top seed Fabiano Caruana is among a huge pack of 24 players just half a point back on 4½/6, while second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov seems to have given up hope, chalking up his 6th draw in 6 games!
Tomorrow (Monday) is a rest day. The top scores after six rounds:
| Name | Nat | Elo | Pts | TB | ||
| 1 | GM | Naiditsch Arkadij | GER | 2702 | 5.0 | 2864 |
| 2 | GM | Fressinet Laurent | FRA | 2693 | 5.0 | 2860 |
| 3 | GM | Kuzubov Yuriy | UKR | 2615 | 5.0 | 2856 |
| 4 | GM | Jones Gawain C B | ENG | 2635 | 5.0 | 2852 |
| 5 | GM | Inarkiev Ernesto | RUS | 2695 | 5.0 | 2841 |
| 6 | GM | Khismatullin Denis | RUS | 2656 | 5.0 | 2827 |
| 7 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | FRA | 2682 | 5.0 | 2821 |
| 8 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | RUS | 2632 | 5.0 | 2803 |
| 9 | GM | Korobov Anton | UKR | 2679 | 5.0 | 2797 |
| 10 | GM | Azarov Sergei | BLR | 2667 | 5.0 | 2783 |
| 11 | GM | Movsesian Sergei | ARM | 2702 | 4.5 | 2785 |
| 12 | GM | Melkumyan Hrant | ARM | 2628 | 4.5 | 2784 |
| 13 | GM | Bacrot Etienne | FRA | 2706 | 4.5 | 2783 |
| 14 | GM | Caruana Fabiano | ITA | 2767 | 4.5 | 2779 |
| 15 | GM | Lenic Luka | SLO | 2637 | 4.5 | 2778 |
| 16 | GM | Jakovenko Dmitry | RUS | 2729 | 4.5 | 2776 |
| 17 | GM | Andreikin Dmitry | RUS | 2689 | 4.5 | 2772 |
| 18 | GM | Sutovsky Emil | ISR | 2700 | 4.5 | 2763 |
| 19 | GM | Riazantsev Alexander | RUS | 2710 | 4.5 | 2760 |
| 20 | GM | Cheparinov Ivan | BUL | 2664 | 4.5 | 2758 |
| 21 | GM | Malakhov Vladimir | RUS | 2705 | 4.5 | 2753 |
| 22 | GM | Timofeev Artyom | RUS | 2650 | 4.5 | 2746 |
| 23 | GM | Kobalia Mikhail | RUS | 2666 | 4.5 | 2746 |
| 24 | GM | Vallejo Pons Francisco | ESP | 2693 | 4.5 | 2746 |
| 25 | GM | Bologan Viktor | MDA | 2687 | 4.5 | 2743 |
| 26 | GM | Jobava Baadur | GEO | 2706 | 4.5 | 2734 |
| 27 | GM | Pantsulaia Levan | GEO | 2595 | 4.5 | 2724 |
| 28 | GM | Kulaots Kaido | EST | 2585 | 4.5 | 2715 |
| 29 | GM | Ragger Markus | AUT | 2654 | 4.5 | 2714 |
| 30 | GM | Akopian Vladimir | ARM | 2684 | 4.5 | 2706 |
| 31 | GM | Fridman Daniel | GER | 2653 | 4.5 | 2704 |
| 32 | GM | Ivanisevic Ivan | SRB | 2645 | 4.5 | 2696 |
| 33 | GM | Istratescu Andrei | FRA | 2633 | 4.5 | 2646 |
| 34 | GM | Stocek Jiri | CZE | 2606 | 4.5 | 2634 |
The top boards in round six in Plovdiv
The championship is an 11-round Swiss competition with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes to a finish with a 30 second increment from the start.
The total prize fund is €100,000, with the winner receiving €14,000. The competition runs from 20-31 March, with one rest day on 26 March. All rounds start at 15:00 local time (12:00 UTC) except the last round which is 2 hours earlier.
Nearly 100 players are rated over 2600 Elo and 15 players are 2700+ Elo.
Photo by Svoboda Chankova at the official website.
