Bartosz Socko alone at the top, meets Loek Van Wely in Round 6

GM Bartosz Socko is now the only one with a perfect score after five rounds. He is ranked fourth in the tournament and thus one of the big favorites to win.

It was also clear that many of the top in this round got adequate opponents. On the 15 live boards, 10 games ended in a draw. The tournament is even and tough, and those trying to secure a draw against their GM colleagues in the rounds to come will probably end up outside both the podium and prize list. The Arctic Chess Challenge this year requires more stamina than ever to go all the way to the top.

We also note also that last year’s winner GM Monika Socko seems happy here, and is doing well with 4 points and a performance rating of 2609. IM Aleksandar H. Wohl bicycled from Trondheim. It seems that this has made him well.

The Norwegian hopes to intervene in the main prize fight are going well with 3.5 points. We have so far been most impressed with FM Kjetil Stokke, who play very good chess. He seems to be better in almost all of his games despite very strong opponents. He has now played three draws in a row against three GMs and gets his fourth in a row in round 6.

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