The top two boards in round 6 of the Foxwoods Open were quickly agreed drawn so that the players could go and get some much needed rest before they continued the battle at the top of the standings this evening. This meant that GM Yury Shulman would at least retain a half-point lead over his rivals and guaranteed that the other 3 players, GMs Varuzhan Akobian and Alex Shabalov, along with IM Robert Hess, would all still be just half-point back of the US Champion.
This did, however, also mean that all the boards from 3 down were tense fights, with players trying to score the win. There were 7 player on 4/5, meaning a win would catapult them into the group of players just half-point off the lead.
The only player to do so was young IM, Alex Lenderman. Lenderman scored the following victory of GM Alex Yermolinsky on board 4.
IM Alex Lenderman-GM Alex Yermolinsky, Round 6
Position after 33…Rg3
34. Rxd6!
A nasty move to meet in time trouble. “Yermo” had about 3 minutes to reach move 40.
34…Bxd6 35. Nxh6+ Kg7 36. Nf5+ Kg8 37. Nxg3 Bxg3 38. Qg5+ Kh7 39. Qxg3 Re8 40. c5 Re7 41. Qd3+ Qg6 42. Rf5 Kg7 43. Qd4+ Kg8 44. Qc4+ Kg7 45. Qd4+ Kg8 46. Qf4 Qe6
Position after 46…Qe6
47. Qg4+ 1-0
47…Rg7 is met by 48.Rf8+ winning the queen.
The sad news, for both Lenderman and Hess who have both put in great tournaments so far, is that there is a lack of foreign players at the top of the standings. This probably means that despite their great results, they sadly could be out of norm contention.
Moving ominously into the 4½ point score group after round 6 are GMs Hikaru Nakamura, who bounced back with a win against IM Dean Ippolito, and Loek Van Wely. Van Wely finished off IM Justin Sarkar in the following game.
GM Loek Van Wely-IM Justin Sarkar, Round 6
Position after 21…Kxg7
22. Nxg5! hxg5 23. Qxg5+ Kh7 24. Qh5+ Kg7 25. Re3 Ra6
Position after 25…Ra6
26. Rc6!
This move had to be seen before sacrificing the knight on g5.
26…Rxc6 27. dxc6 Qxc6 28. Rg3+ Qg6 29. Qe5+ Kg8 30. Rxg6+ fxg6 31. Qxb5 Rc8 32. h4 1-0
Also joining them is GM Julio Becerra who seems to have recovered from an earlier upset loss to IM Ray Robson. (Can we stop calling losses to Hess, Lenderman, Robson and IM Sam Shankland upsets?)
GM Julio Becerra-FM Alex Betaneli, Round 6
Positon after 27…Bd8
28. Rxa6! Bxa6 29. Rxa6 Qe7 30. Ba4 Bc7 31. Bc6 Bb8 32. Bxb7 Qxb7 33.Ra2 1-0
Round 7 starts at 6:00 pm EST and then we’ll just have one final day’s play tomorrow with round 8 starting at 10:00 am EST and the final round at 4:30 pm EST.
wrong diagram in game becarra-betanelli….Positon after 27…Bd8