A review of the 6th round

The most interesting actions took place in the leaders' games. Moritz Weishaeutel failed to make the most of his chances against the experienced grandmaster Igor Khenkin.

Moritz found a very interesting idea: 

20.Bf4 Nf8 21.Re7 Nd5 22.Rxf7, 

but couldn't win this position. His idea could be improved on the first move: 20.Bd2! and hier 20...Nf8 21.Re7 Nd5 22.Rxf7! would be stronger, since after Kxf7 white will play 23.Qf3+ winning some material. Draw in this game still kept Weishaeutel in the lead, but he will be sharing the first place with grandmaster Krasenkow, who profited from a serious positional mistake of Gabriel Gaehwiler in the following position:

Black played 20...Qb4+? here. Queen's exchange left Black in a hopeless ending: 21.Qxb4 Nd3+22.Ke2 Nxb4 23.a3 Nc6 24.Rad1 Be6 26.Nf4+- and Black started to lose the material.

Black could play much better: After 20...Be6 21.Bxd5 Rc8 22.Nf4 (22.Rd1? Nd3!-+) Bxd5 23.Qxd5+ Qf7 24.Qxf7 Kxf7 Black has a very good compensation for the lost pawn. Another difficult variation is 21.Nf4 Nc6 22. Qd2 d4 23.Nxe6 Qxe6 24.Bh3 dxe3 25.fxe3 Rd8 26.Qf2 Nd4 27.Bxf5 Nxf5 with a compensation for exchange.

Another leader of the tournament Tobias Koelle got a very bad position against Fabian Baenziger. He lost a rook ending pawn down, but at one moment he had a good chance for a draw.

Fabian should play 57...Rb3+ here. If 58.Kf4 (58.Kf2 g5-+), then g5+! 59.Kg4 Kc4 and Black should win.

After 57...a2? White could draw with a beautiful 58.Kd3!! Now 58...Rb3+ would be met with 59.Ke2! Rxg3 60.Kf2= and if 58...Rg2, then 59.Ra5+ Kc6 60.Kc4=.

After 58.Kf4? Black wins without trouble: 

Kc4 59. Kg5 Kb3 60.Kxg6 Rg2 61.Rb8+ Kc4 62.Rc8+ Kd4 63.Rd8+ Ke4 64.Re8+ Kf3 65.Ra8 Kxg3 66.Kf5 Re2!

Few moves later White resign. Winning this game allowed Fabian to catch Tobias. They both just half a point behing the leaders.