Magnus Carlsen

The weather in Miskolc has been very sunny with temperatures up to 30oC. Yesterday was very humid as well and the dark afternoon clouds promised rain that never came. Today is another beautiful day and we will surely see 30 oC again. 

In game 5 yesterday Peter played the slightly unusual 10.Qe1 variation in the Sicilian Dragen, and Magnus chose the variation with 12..... cxd5 instead of the more normal Sxd5.
Magnus thought he was alright after the opening but he was not prepared for 20.Qa5! after which he spent more than 10 minutes evaluating the possibilities. Later he thought he should have exchanged queens and played the slightly worse rook ending. It may be better for white but black should hold with precise play. 
Too late he realized that his plan Qc7-e7-h4 was giving white a serious advantage. He still thought he could create difficulties for white with 24....c3 but had missed 26.f4! after which he is was short on time as well as a pawn down with no compensation.
After 34.Qe5 black looked lost. Qh4 loses to Qg5! and Qb6 probably to f5!
Magnus found Kg7! to activate his king. 
Exchanging queens brought white a very good rook endgame with 3 versus 1 pawn on the queenside and 2 versus 3 on the kingside. Fortunately for Magnus his king was slightly better placed to support the advance of pawns and the commentators say the position was theoretically drawn after about 40 moves.
Magnus generally played well in the endgame but supposedly made a mistake with 44....g4? instead of Kg3. Afterwards Peter supposedly also went wrong and when Magnus found 48.....Rg6! he has excellent drawing chances. 
If white plays c5 Magnus checks on g4 and the rook goes to h4 in which case there will be a queen ending with white having an additional pawn. Theoretical drawn but black could easily make a mistake.
Peter may have thought that he could win with the two advanced pawns and played 51.Rxh3 Kxh3 52.c5. 
Magnus had about 50 seconds (plus increments) at this time and after eliminating the other possible defences he found the drawing plan Rg4+ 53.Ka5 Rc4 spending two valuable tempi getting the rook into the right position. Afterwards it was a fairly straight forward draw as the black king arrives just in time to capture one pawn while sacrificing the rook on the other.
An exciting game and a narrow escape for Magnus. Peter again was well prepared and played excellent in the middle game while Magnus excelled in the endgame.

As white Magnus played 1.d4 this time and Peter entered the variation d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 c5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Qc7 and two moves later captured the pawn on c4. Magnus supposedly have good compensation for the pawn, and Kasparov has beaten Kramnik in the same line. Peter deviated from normal theory with 12.....Nxe4 instead of dxe4. Magnus felt he had some counterplay but never enough to play for a win. In the end he settled for rook and opposite colour bishop endgame which is drawn as long as he can keep the black rook out of play. Peter sacrificed his c-pawn, but as Magnus still can prevent black activating his rook blocking with his rook or bishop a draw was agreed after move 32.

In summary Magnus is very satisfied with the results so far and the lead 3,5-2,5 in the match while not entirely happy about his play. He has had serious difficulties in two games and only an advantage in the one game he won.  

We expect Peter to really go for a win in game 7 today and it will surely be an exciting day!

Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, Jun 1st 2008