Benjamin Gledura caught up with the leader at the XXIII Anatoly Karpov International Tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk
Two-thirds of the XXIII Anatoly Karpov International Tournament have been completed.
In the fifth round, Shamsiddin Vokhidov suffered his second consecutive defeat, losing as White to Benjamin Gledura. After the game, the Hungarian grandmaster explained that he had already lost to this opponent in a solid opening, so this time he was looking for a sharper battle. And so it happened: the grandmasters played the Sicilian Defense and reached a position with mutual chances. White castled long, while the black king remained in the center. Gledura made a typical exchange sacrifice on c3, weakening the dark squares around the opponent’s king, which soon proved decisive. White allowed the black queen and bishop to line up on the long diagonal and were forced to resign due to severe losses.
Aleksey Grebnev held a rook and knight endgame with a pawn down against Raunak Sadhwani, and Ilia Iljiushenok defended a tough position against Ivan Zemlyanskii in a long and stubborn struggle. The games Lu Shanglei — D. Lazavik and A. Nesterov — A. Hakobyan also ended in draws.
In the sixth round, as in the previous one, Benjamin Gledura scored the only victory of the entire tournament. The Hungarian grandmaster, playing White, defeated Russian Ilia Iljiushenok and caught up with the leader, Denis Lazavik. After the game, Benjamin shared his impressions:
«The second game today was long and very challenging. I think that in the middlegame he was doing fine, maybe even slightly better. But I launched an attack on the kingside, and he started spending a lot of time. My opponent made several small mistakes, after which we entered the endgame that proved extremely difficult for him to defend under time pressure.
Regarding my overall performance, of course, today the games worked out very well. I make mistakes, my play is far from ideal, but the result is good so far. I hope I’ll be able to keep going. There are still three rounds to go, and they will be very tough because the opponents here are strong. Let’s see. I hope that I can show some good chess», — the grandmaster concluded.
Draws were recorded in the games A. Grebnev — I. Zemlyanskii, D. Lazavik — A. Nesterov, S. Vokhidov — Lu Shanglei, and A. Hakobyan — R. Sadhwani.
Standings after Round 6:
1-2. Denis Lazavik, Benjamin Gledura — 4
3-4. Aram Hakobyan, Ivan Zemlyanskii — 3.5
5-6. Raunak Sadhwani, Shamsiddin Vokhidov — 3
7-8. Aleksey Grebnev, Arseniy Nesterov — 2.5
9-10. Ilia Iljiushenok, Lu Shanglei — 2
Round 7 pairings:
Lu Shanglei — B. Gledura, A. Nesterov — S. Vokhidov, R. Sadhwani — D. Lazavik, I. Zemlyanskii — А. Hakobyan, I. Iljiushenok — А. Grebnev.
The tournament has a day off on Tuesday, April 14. The seventh and eighth rounds will be held on April 15. The games start at 11 AM and 4 PM local time.
Live broadcast:
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Videotranslation — https://vk.com/chessugra
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