The sixth round offered several exciting top games.
At the first table, the leader Italian Sonis and Ukrainian Galperin met. It was a game where Sonis got the upper hand early on and looked to be heading for a victory, but Galperin sacrificed pawns for counterplay in the right position. Sonis was forced to liquidate to a rook endgame, where the extra pawn became a double pawn, which is why the draw was close at hand. But just as Galperin was about to secure his half point, he tripped and Sonis won an instructive rook endgame.
Kücüksari made an early mistake in his game as white against the field’s other grandmaster, the Austrian Blohberger, and was about to be blown off the court. But in a critical phase, Blohberger chose the wrong path for his attack and a balanced endgame emerged where Kücüksari had a rook and a pawn against two pieces, and also some activity.
However, the draw was close at hand, but in the last shaky minutes of the game, the Austrian went wrong and went into a pawn ending that was ultimately unsustainable.
Norwegian Abdrlauf got better out of the opening aginst the Icelander Stefansson early on in a Scandinavian game. Gradually, the white grip strengthened and with each move it felt as if a new small weakness was revealed. Abdrlauf won for sure.
In addition to these top meetings, it was noted that Falkevall won the Swedish encounter with Carlsson and that Hagevi took a meritorious victory against Mai.
It’s starting to tighten up.