It’s that ominously familiar super-tournament moment. World Champion Magnus Carlsen starts slowly and lets others steal the headlines, but when he wins one game his predatory instincts take over. The prey caught in the headlights in Round 6 was Evgeny Tomashevsky, who found himself with as little time as Loek van Wely the day before but without the consolation of a won position. Carlsen’s win saw him join Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren in the tournament lead, while Anish Giri scored the day’s only other win to return to 50%.

All eyes, cameras, phones and videos on Carlsen... and his latest victim | photo: Alina l'Ami, Tata Steel Chess Facebook 

Tata Steel Chess Round 6 results

Magnus Carlsen opened with 1.d4, 2.Nf3, 3.Bf4, which once upon a time might have been dismissed as a lazy approach by an unambitious chess player. It’s all the rage nowadays, though, as players steer clear of the sharper lines more susceptible to computer analysis, and Peter Svidler – joining Jan Gustafsson in the chess24 commentary team until the end of the event – christened what’s commonly known as the “London System” the “Grischuk System”.

There was little doubting Magnus’ intentions, but he spelled them out after the game:

I just wanted to play a normal position today. Soon I got the opportunity to be aggressive and I used it.

Evgeny Tomashevsky sank into long thinks from as early as move 8, and managed to play 11…Ne7 at precisely the moment Svidler had just commented that, “there are some situations where players go Ne7, but this isn’t one of them”. The next move the knight came to g6, which Magnus identified as the root of Black’s subsequent problems:

I think already Ng6 is a conceptual mistake – at least an inaccuracy. My position is easier to play and I think certainly he could have defended better after that but it’s already very pleasant for White to play.

Magnus confounded another commentator with 13.Bxg6:

Soon the position had been blown open, with all kinds of sacrifices and attacking options on the cards. The attack, however, proved as short-lived as it was sudden and intense. In a desperate time situation (a couple of minutes + increments for around 20 moves), Tomashevsky rushed to avoid Loek van Wely’s mistake the day before and headed for the ending (19...Qd8 seems to have been a mistake, with 19...Nh7! the best defence).

Here he played 20…Ne4?, but after 21.Nxe4 Qxh4 22.Rxh4 dxe4 White had 23.dxc5! and the white rook could come to the seventh rank with tempo. Instead a better try was to include 20…cxd4!, hoping for 21.exd4, when 21…Ne4! now avoids the opening of the d-file. However, after 21.Rxd4! Carlsen would still have had a fierce attack in Tomashevsky's time trouble.

The last mystery of the game was the final position:

Tomashevsky had done well to keep making decent moves with very little time on his clock, but then suddenly resigned in a position only marginally worse than the one he’d been playing for the last ten moves. Svidler, who had earlier said it would be, “the great save of the century” if Tomashevsky held, was puzzled, as was Nigel Short:

Still, there was no doubting the final result was utterly merited. Watch Magnus shortly after the game:

That was the quickest game of the day, ending on move 30 while Carlsen still had an hour left on his clock, but it seemed the other win would also be over in a flash. Anish Giri finally had the initiative in his home supertournament and was crashing through in style against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. How’s this for a move we’d all like to play?  20.c7!

The knight of course forked half Black’s army from c6 on the next move.

But strangely, although Giri never went dramatically astray, the game dragged on and on, until Shakhriyar finally threw in the towel only on move 66. Giri shared some Russian folk wisdom afterwards:

The other games were all drawn, but only the game between Sergey Karjakin and Pavel Eljanov could count as quiet. Ding Liren played an inventive pawn sacrifice against David Navara, but his marauding knights couldn’t quite bring home victory. 

Chinese no. 1 Ding Liren came close to snatching the sole lead | photo: Alina l'Ami, Tata Steel Chess Facebook

Michael Adams almost suffered another calamity against Loek van Wely, overlooking the possibility of

16…Nxe4!, when 17.Bxe4 Bxe4 18.Rxe4 Qb7 is bad, but 17.Rxe4! f5 18.Re3 Bxg2 19.Kxg2 Qb7+ turned out to be ok – just! – for the English grandmaster. Mickey, in sole last place after three losses, gave a typically amusing account of his adventures so far:

I’m sort of making serious blunders in every game, of a mainly tactical but sometimes strategical variety. That’s the general problem.

Loek, meanwhile, explained his thinking the day before against Magnus:

I had a choice of going to the endgame when I’m slightly better and trying to kill him – and even with little time this was something that I couldn’t resist! I missed some coolness to find this rook-trapping idea.

The biggest sensation of the day would perhaps have been if Wesley So could have followed up his earlier defeat of Anish Giri by claiming the scalp of Fabiano Caruana. He came very close, since Fabiano missed a trick – not 19.Nc5!, which he’d considered the main move, but that 21...Nxe4? 22.Ne5 Qd5 23.Rxe4! was winning on the spot. 

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He dodged that bullet and explained that he was lucky he still had resources to continue the fight and eventually hold an ending a pawn down:

For once Caruana’s wasn’t the final game to finish. Wei Yi found himself down to under ten minutes for 25 moves against his compatriot Hou Yifan, and the time deficit finally told with a mistake in the run-up to the time control. 

A meeting between two Chinese prodigies | photo: Alina l'Ami, Tata Steel Chess Facebook

We’ve seen another side to the brilliant young attacking prodigy in Wijk aan Zee, though, with Wei Yi showing remarkable resilience to hold another bad position and claim his sixth draw in a row.

So as we’re about to cross the halfway mark in the tournament Magnus Carlsen has caught the leaders Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren:

In Saturday’s Round 7 Magnus will be hunting a hat-trick of wins with the black pieces against Pavel Eljanov, knowing that his fellow leaders play each other and must drop points. And, of course, there’s the game of the round and potentially tournament: Van Wely – Giri! As Loek put it:

Basically my only goal left in the tournament is to destroy Anish!

Once again Peter Svidler will be live with Jan Gustafsson to take us through all the action here on chess24.

 See also:

• Official website 
• All the games on chess24: Masters | Challengers
• Tata Steel 2016 Preview
• Tata Steel 2016, 1: So easy
• Tata Steel 2016, 2: Fabi the Revenant 
• Tata Steel 2016, 3: Caruana top after all-action day
• Tata Steel 2016, 4: Why the long face?
• Tata Steel 2016, 5: Magnus gambles and wins