Caruana survives against Hou Yifan as the leaders all draw in GRENKE Round 6 - 6

Fabiano Caruana had an escape against Hou Yifan in round 6 of the GRENKE Classic after his opponent couldn't find the correct winning idea. 34.Nd2? (34.h4) f5! was where Hou Yifan gained her winning advantage, 59.d4 with the idea 59.cxd4+ Kxd4 followed by c3+ was I believe the way to win. As it was Hou chose another plan that unfortunately for her was just holdable for Caruana.

The other joint leaders Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew. MVL was very well prepared in a King's Indian Fianchetto line but his 14...Rfd8 rather than 14...Nbc4= caused him some unnecessary suffering before the draw was agreed.

Magnus Carlsen also seemed to have been out prepared by his opponent, Levon Aronian played very quickly up to 19.Rc1 when he fell into a long think in a very complicated position. Aronian as Black was better, perhaps not by a great deal, and after 26...Qd6 (Aronian didn't like this and the computer prefers 26...Rd6) Carlsen found his way to equality and a draw on move 52.

Matthias Bluebaum scored his first win of the event, against former World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Anand seemed to be trying a bit too hard, encouraged perhaps by Bluebaum's lack of time, 19...Bd5 is a bit too optimistic. Bluebaum won a piece but Anand had a chance with 29...Nc4 to have pressure, after 29...b2? Bluebaum converted his advantage clinically.

Georg Meier made a one move blunder in a roughly equal position against Arkadij Naiditsch, after 33.cxb6?? Qb7! he walked into an unstoppable attack and resigned.

Round 6 standings: 1st-3rd MVL, Vitiugov, Caruana 4pts, 4th-4th Carlsen, Aronian 3.5pts, 6th Bluebaum 3pts, 7th Naiditsch 2.5pts, 8th-9th Anand, Hou Yifan 2pts, 10th Meier 1.5pts

Round 7 pairings 2pm BST Saturday 7th March: Naiditsch-Carlsen, Anand-Meier, Hou Yifan-Bluebaum, MVL-Caruana, Aronian-Vitiugov