Bucharest - Both games ended in a draw in the sixth and final round on Tuesday, leaving Veselin Topalov and Vassily Ivanchuk tied with 3.5/6.

A two-game rapid match was played to break the tie, won by Ivanchuk, who qualifies for the next Bilbao Masters Final, and re-enters the Top 10.

Ivanchuk and Topalov, Round 6 | Photos by Macauley Peterson, more here

Round 6 Report

by GM Dorian Rogozenco

The last round in Bucharest didn’t establish the winner, since the leaders’ encounter Ivanchuk-Topalov finished in a draw after a short, but interesting game, marked by the fight for the initiative. Everything ended with a small combination from Ivanchuk which led to perpetual.

Nisipeanu, with white against Caruana, played the apparently harmless Four Knights Variation and achieved a promising position. The Italian had to sac a pawn in order to free himself from White’s pressure. The Romanian Grandmaster overestimated his chances and instead of slowly improving the position with an extra pawn, he started direct actions, but failed to increase the initiative and in the end the position only simplified. Soon the players agreed to a draw.

Thus, after the final round Topalov and Ivanchuk shared the victory with 3.5 points, followed by Caruana, 3 points and Nisipeanu, 2 points.

The tie-break match to establish the winner of the tournament consisted of two rapid games with the following time-control: 15 minutes for each player per game with increment of 3 seconds per move. In the first game something quite unusual happened: being a pawn up in a simple endgame with large advantage, Veselin Topalov lost on time. In the second game Ivanchuk with White didn’t have problems to keep his leading position and thus having won the rapid match with a score of 1,5-0,5 Ivanchuk became the winner of the 6^th edition of Kings Tournament.

PGN file

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Kings Tournament 2012 | Pairings & results

Kings Tournament 2012 | Final standings