Risky Anand stumbles and is beaten by Kamsky. Ivanchuk declines a draw, errs and loses to Adams. Anand and Topalov lead with 4 out of 6, followed by Gelfand, Karjakin, Ivanchuk and Adams all half a point behind.
Kamsky – Anand
Kamsky plays an aggressive variation of the Queens Gambit Accepted, and emerges with a slender edge. Anand plays the risky queenside castling, and hitting out with …f5. Anand goes a little astray, helping White open the f-file, and Kamsky finds some strong move to take back the advantage, leading into a strong position where Black’s e6-pawn is the main target. Kamsky’s central pawns push forward to victory.
Adams – Ivanchuk
Adams gets a definite advantage out of a Sicilian Scheveningen playing a delayed Keres Attack. The Black king finds itself trapped in the centre. White’s play on both wings gives Black many problems to solve. White eventually penetrates along the f-file with his rook – lodged at f6. Black struggles to generate counterplay on the queenside with his rook, but ends up opening up lines through the queenside for the White queen. Assisted by White’s queenside pawns, the White queen infiltrates into the queenside, and the combination of material loss and White promoting a passed pawn is enough for Ivanchuk to resign.
Bacrot – Aronian
A Queen’s Gambit Ragozin system is a prelude to a mass exchange of pieces into a sterile endgame. Draw agreed.
Mamedyarov – Gelfand
Mamedyarov gets a little ambitious out of a Queen’s Indian, and finds himself a pawn down, but has compensation in his better developed pieces. He faces no problem getting it back. A tactical middle ends with Mamedyarov giving up a pawn to deliver a perpetual check.
Sokolov – Leko
Leko has no problems equalising on the black side of a Queen’s Indian. A repetition of position ends the game.
Tiviakov – Topalov
Tiviakov’s c3 Sicilian ends up transposing into an Advance French like trench warfare. Topalov expands on both sides of the board with aggressive pawn storms. Topalov sacrifices a pawn for more active pieces, but Tiviakov neutralises the queenside pawn storm and the major pieces get exchanged off. The minor piece and pawns endgame ends in a draw when Topalov runs out of pawns to play with.
van Wely – Karjakin
Karjakin equalises in an actively played Queen’s Indian. His initiative continues for most of the middle game. Van Wely’s position remains solid. As the pieces get exchanged van Wely gains more and more control. He enters the minor piece and pawns endgame with an extra pawn, but Karjakin is stubborn in defence. After a long endgame and on the brink of all the pawns disappearing, a ceasefire is declared.