Game 6 in the World Championship match between Boris Gelfand and Viswanathan Anand ended in a draw as well. Anand repeated his Chebanenko Semi-Slav and Gelfand tried something different on move 6. He won a pawn, but didn't see a way to finish his development without giving it back quickly. After a few accurate moves by Anand a drawn rook ending came on the board.

Saturday is a rest day. The score is 3-3 at half time; six more games are scheduled in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

The trend hasn't changed yet, and the draws just keep coming! Also in the 6th match game we didn't see fireworks, but two well prepared gentlemen playing moves on a high level and Black (Anand) putting up another good defence to hold the balance. Whether you like it or not, this is the chess that's being played between Gelfand and Anand, two players who continue to be very cautious. The nightmare scenario of twelve draws followed by a tiebreak is getting more realistic by the day...

Again a Chebanenko/Semi-Slav came on the board, and Gelfand deviated from his first two white games, by switching to 6.Qc2 instead of 6.b3. Anand sacrificed a pawn, which was most probably still part of his preparation, and then Gelfand quickly returned the favour.

I calculated some lines but I didn't see a way to bring out my pieces [and keep the pawn].

The 6th day in Moscow, however, was dominated by the presence of Garry Kasparov. It's quite telling to see that, seven years after his retirement, the 13th World Champion still attracts more attention from spectators and journalists than Anand and Gelfand. Just after the game started, Kasparov gave a 50-minute press conference and more media were present than ever before.

He started by repeating what he had said before the match: that for the first time in a long period, the World Championship match had nothing to do with a fight for the title of best player in the world. Confronted with this statement, Anand said he "didn't have time" to deal with these things. Gelfand felt that Kasparov merely wanted to remind people how good he was. You can see all this in the video below.

After the press conference, Kasparov joined the commentary team to share his thoughts on the official website. He was especially critical – or rather disappointed – of Anand.

It is not the number of tournament wins — I can't remember when Vishy last won a tournament — but the sparkle in his eyes. Even in 2010 in some games you could see the spark of genius but in most games he was struggling.

Then, Kasparov gave a simul to about twenty talented kids, very talented in fact. They had actually qualified for the simul by winning different youth events. Normally Kasparov doesn't play opponents rated above about 2000 Elo, but it was clear that several kids were actually stronger than that, and Garry Kimovich was clearly struggling.

Saturday is a rest day; on Sunday Gelfand will have White again because the colors are reversed at half-time.

PGN string

Match score