Round 6

Nigel Short's woes continued with another loss, this time to Canadian GM Pascal Charbonneau. That makes Nigel a distant last as we head into the final leg of the International. For a player of his class to score 1/2 from six games is unprecedented in the modern era. Explanations vary - he had a toothache for the first two rounds and was in pain and loopy from medications. Then, he "was shell shocked from having started with naught out of two" as I overheard him say during his post mortem with Sutovsky after round four. Some are suggesting that the mere presence of Gata Kamsky is unnerving Short. Whatever the explanation, the chess disaster of the modern era is unfolding before our eyes in Montreal.

Bluvshtein v Tiviakov saw the Canadian hope use up oodles of time in the opening (an hour for moves 10-14) which left him little time for the rest of the game. At move 25 he had just 90 seconds(with a 30 second increment) on his clock to make the final 15 moves before time control. Needless to say, he blundered, and resigned before move 30.

Replay the game here
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Kamsky v Sutovsky was a quick draw. However, it did look like there was little left to play for.

Replay the game here
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Miton v Harikrishna was also drawn quickly, and looked worthy of playing out.

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The heat must have been getting to the players, because the all Ukrainian matchup, Elyanov v Ivanchuk, was also drawn with a board full of pieces.

Replay the game here
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Charbonneau v Short was a long and difficult struggle, ending with a victory for Pascal on move 68. Charbonneau unleashed some tactics right out of the opening (Scotch C45) which left Short with a miserable pawn structure and down a pawn. Charbonneau nonetheless had to switch to defense, and for a while it looked like Short had just enough activity to hold the draw.

Replay the game here
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Nigel Short goes down again. This time to Pascal Charbonneau


Gata Kamsky is due to play Short in round 7

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