M-Tel Masters 2006 - Round 6 Report

U.S. GM, Gata Kamsky took sole lead after round six ,of the M-Tel Masters championship, beating
GM Ruslan Ponomariov in an Anti-Marshall game. Kamsky was ruthless in dominating the former World champion and had a good advantage out of th opening. Ponomariov could not recover and resigned on move 41 with Mate inevitable.

GM Vishwanathan Anand was lucky to escape with a draw against French GM Etienne Bacrot
in a Main line Marshall game. The game followed similar lines to the Anand-Topalov game in 1993,which Anand had won, upto move 14 where Anand deviated and played Re4. This move was a tactical error and caused a lot ofdifficulty in manouvering white pieces. GM Bacrot was under tremendous time pressure and allowed Anand to get off the hook.

The Moves:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8.
c3 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d4 Bd6 13. Re1 Qh4 14. g3
Qh3 15. Re4 g5 16. Qe1 Bf5 17. Nd2 h6 18. f3 Kg7 19. a4 Bxe4 20. fxe4 Rae8
21. axb5 axb5 22. Nf1 Qg4 23. Bc2 Re7 24. Bd2 Rfe8 25. e5 f6 26. h3 Qxh3
27. Qe4 Kh8 28. Ra6 fxe5 29. Rxc6 Rf8 30. Bd3 Ref7 31. Qg2 Qxg2+ 32. Kxg2
Rf6 33. dxe5 Bxe5 34. Rc5 Rd6 35. Be4 Rfd8 36. Rxb5 Bg7 37. Bc1 Nf6 38. Bf3
g4 39. Be2 Re8 40. Bc4 Rd1 41. Bf4 Ne4 42. Be2 Nxc3 43. Bxd1 Nxb5 44. Bxg4
Re1 45. Ne3 Nd4 46. Nc4 Rb1 47. Bd2 Nb3 48. Be3 Nd4 49. Bd2 Nb3 50. Be3 Nd4[1/2-1/2]

The world champion and local favourite plunged to another defeat , this time, at the hands of GM Peter Svidler, in a Classical Grunfeld Exchange, in the longest game of the day at 61 moves.
With this he is almost out of the title reckoning as he is 2 points behind the leader.