Report by Steve Giddins

On paper, round six should have been one of the most exciting so far, since it featured two mouth-watering clashes between the favourites: Anand-Carlsen and Ivanchuk-Nakamura. Sad to relate, though, both turned out to be what Harry Golombek once described as "games not calculated to add greatly to the sum total of human happiness". The latter was the first real GM-draw of the event, lasting just 16 theoretical moves and barely 30 minutes' playing time, whilst the former was a 26-move draw in a theoretical Dragon Sicilian.

Results of the day

Shirov's 100% start was finally ended by Nigel Short, who chose a favourite variation of the main line Spanish, and held a comfortable draw.

Lenier Dominguez has been less conspicuous in this event than last year, but today he heaped more misery on the Dutch contingent, by opening his winning account at the expense of Tiviakov.

Peter Leko also opened his winning account, at the expense of Caruana. Obscure complications left the Hungarian with a piece for several pawns, and he eventually managed to consolidate everything and win.

Finally, in the day's longest game, Kramnik won again, ain the process condemning his sometime second Loek van Wely, to his fifth straight loss. In a typical KID structure, the Dutchman's 39th allowed a thematic piece sacrifice on c5, and then failed to find a way to stop the pawns.

With play being relatively quiet in the A Group, the two young guns of the B and C Groups can take centre stage. Both Giri and Robson won, taking their scores to 5/6 and 5.5/6 respectively. Giri showed considerable audacity and should probably have been punished, but his opponent 's position collapsed completely, in the run up to the time control.

From Chessbase.com