Not a bad run at all for the great Armenian! Levon Aronian entered round 6 (of 7) with a full point lead over early leader Hou Yifan, world champion Magnus Carlsen, and world #4 Fabiano Caruana. Neither Car made it into fourth gear - the champ drew a sharp, well-played game with Arkadij Naiditsch while Caruana was unable to make more of his advantage against Matthias Bluebaum than the piece-up side of the drawn rook and knight vs. rook ending. As for Hou, she had the chance to be a hero. "All" she had to do was defeat Aronian with Black, and she'd be back in a tie for first.
She played well through the opening and middlegame, keeping the position roughly balanced, but in the end Aronian's ongoing pressure with the bishop pair was too much. One concession at a time, Black's position grew worse and worse, and Hou gave up just after the time control.
That was Aronian's fifth win in a row, and now that he leads by a point and a half with a round to go, he has clinched clear first. The battle for second is a live one though, with five players within half a point of each other. Here are the last round pairings: