Reggio Emilia, Round 6: Blood Everywhere
Many of the previous rounds had been pretty tepid, but in round 6 of Reggio Emilia there was action everywhere. The craziest game was also the shortest, at least in the number of moves, as Nigel Short went berzerk against Sergei Movsesian. First he sacrificed a pawn, and it was sound. Next, a piece, and that was sound too - at least initially. Then came the second piece sac, and this one was completely unsound, and then Short put still a third piece on the altar as well. Finally, down three pieces and lacking any real attack, Short climbed on the altar as well and sacrificed the point instead of making his 21st move.
The fastest game to finish was Gashimov-Ivanchuk. Ivanchuk lost in a hurry. Gashimov came up with a new move in a sharp endgame variation of the Advance Caro-Kann, and Ivanchuk never seemed to get a grip on the position. He seemed to lose ground every move, and then capped it with a blunder on move 26, resigning a move later.
Navara-Godena was a typical Godena game: he spent tons of time early, and both his position and clock situation deteriorated rapidly. He hung on for a while, but then blundered into a mating net before the time control.
Finally, there was Morozevich-Onischuk. Morozevich was better for most of the game, but eventually got bamboozled in the complications and fell apart around the time control. His 39th move brought him from better to equal, move 40 from equal to somewhat worse, and move 41 was a blunder leaving him dead lost.
As for the leader, Vallejo Pons managed to avoid the craziness all around him and drew calmly with Caruana.
Standings After Round 6:
1. Vallejo Pons 4.5
2-4. Movsesian, Onischuk, Gashimov 3.5
5-7. Caruana, Ivanchuk, Navara 3
8-9. Morozevich, Short 2.5
10. Godena 1
Reader Comments (3)
I watched the Gashimov-Ivanchuk live and Chucky was about 15 minutes ahead on time and seem to be playing quite quickly. The lack of development on his kingside made it difficult for him and the h8 rook was so poor. After the check with Bc6 it looked like Black got very tied down. Maybe Chucky forgot the rule "Castle Early and Often".
Dennis, are you planning to provide your analysis of the game?
That suggests I had a (serious) analysis to start with, which might be a flawed assumption. :)
Chris Falter writes in to note that computer analysis of the games can be found at http://www.chessdom.com/news-2010/reggio-emilia-live.