World number two Viswanathan Anand kept himself in reckoning for his sixth title on the trot, winning the sixth game against Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in the Grenkeleasing World Rapid championship at Mainz Classic Chess.
With scores tied at 3-3 in the eight-game contest, the stage is set for a nail-biting finale, reminiscent of 2003 edition when the Indian came back from behind three times against World's top rated women Judit Polgar to eventually take the match on the final day.
Anand will be hoping for an encore but Radjabov is certainly proving out to be one of the toughest contestants for the Indian in his own forte - the rapid chess.
Anand has so far played three games with white, scoring just one point while with black his performance has been much better in which he netted two points out of three games.
It turned out to be a similar story in the other big match being played under Chess960 rules in which the position of the pieces is shuffled just before the start of the game.
After another engrossing day here, Russian GM Peter Svidler and Armenian challenger Levon Aronian remained tied at 3-3 score with just two games to one.
The third day provided one victory each for the contestants of this Chess960 world championship match.
In the Ordix Open being played simultaneously, Chess 960 junior champion P Harikrishna showed tremendous fighting spirit to win all the five games of the opening day.
Showing no signs of tiredness despite playing 19 games in four days prior to the Ordix Open here, Harikrishna gave a fine lesson to Grandmaster Sergey Erenburg of Israel in the fifth round game to be among nine leaders.
Others in the lead include former world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan and two-time world junior champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan.
Anand knew he had to win the sixth game to remain in the match as a draw or a loss would have put Radjabov in command because the latter already had a full point lead to back him.
The opening was a Semi Slav defense and for once Radjabov did not go for his pet complexities, opting for a more positional variation.
As a result, Anand equalised comfortably and unleashed an attack on the white king forcing Radjabov to enter a slightly inferior endgame after which it was a treat to watch Anand who marched his king side pawn to score a smashing victory in 46 moves.
Earlier, Anand started the third day with scores tied at 2-2 and was hoping to do better with his white pieces.
However, as the fifth game progressed the Indian ace was in for a big shock as almost nonchalantly, Radjabov got the dynamics rolling in his favour after employing the Sicilian Sveshnikov for the third time in this match.
Playing one of the main lines, Anand got no advantage and in his own words "was worse barely two moves out of the theory".
Radjabov, to his credit, carried out his endgame plan to perfection after getting two passed pawns and Anand lost a piece for effectively no counter play. Interestingly, this game also lasted 46 moves.
Results: V Anand v/s Teimour Radjabov 3-3; Peter Svidler v/s Levon Aronian 3-3
The moves: Game 5: V Anand v/s Teimour Radjabov
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 Bg7 11. Bd3 Ne7 12. Nxe7 Qxe7 13. O-O O-O 14. c3 f5 15. Nc2 Rb8 16. exf5 e4 17. Re1 Bxf5 18. Ne3 Bg6 19. Nd5 Qe5 20. Bc2 a5 21. f4 Qe6 22. Qd2 Kh8 23. a3 f5 24. Bb3 Qc8 25. Qf2 Qc5 26. Rad1 Bf7 27. Bc2 Bxd5 28. Qxc5 dxc5 29. Rxd5 b4 30. Rxc5 bxc3 31. bxc3 Rbc8 32. Rxc8 Rxc8 33. Rd1 Bf8 34. Kf1 Rxc3 35. Ba4 Rxa3 36. Bd7 Ra2 37. Re1 Bb4 38. Re2 Bd2 39. Kf2 a4 40. Bxf5 e3+ 41. Kf3 a3 42. g3 Rb2 43. Be6 Kg7 44. Rg2 a2 45. Bxa2 Rxa2 46. Rg1 Bb4 white resigned
Game 6: Radjabov v/s Anand
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Nbd2 Nbd7 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. e4 e5 9. cxd5 cxd5 10. exd5 exd4 11. Ne4 Nxe4 12. Bxe4 Nf6 13. Bc2 Bg4 14. h3 Bh5 15. g4 Bg6 16. Bxg6 fxg6 17. Qxd4 Qd7 18. Bg5 Nxg4 19. Qxg4 Qxg4+ 20. hxg4 Rxf3 21. Kg2 Rf7 22. Rae1 Rd7 23. Rd1 Rc8 24. Rc1 Rxc1 25.Bxc1 h5 26. Be3 a6 27. gxh5 gxh5 28. b3 Kf7 29. Kf3 Re7 30. Rg1 Re5 31. Rd1 g5 32. a3 g4+ 33. Kg2 Rf5 34. b4 Ke7 35. Bc5 Kd7 36. Rd4 b5 37. Rd1 Bf4 38. Re1 Re5 39. Rd1 h4 40. d6 h3+ 41. Kf1 g3 42. fxg3 Bxg3 43. Kg1 Rf5 44. Ra1 Rf3 45. Kh1 Rd3 46. Rf1 Kc6 white resigned.
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