Viswanathan Anand was one step away from his seventh Chess Classic title after crashing through the defence of Spain's Alexei Shirov in the sixth game in the Duel of the World Champions being held here at the Rheingoldhalle.
The crushing victory last night gave Anand an unassailable 4-2 lead, leaving Shirov in a must-win situation in the remaining two games.
That is an uphill task for the Latvia-born Shirov who is up against World's Number 2 player enjoying one of the best years of his career.
All that the Indian Grandmaster needs is a draw in one of the two games to clinch his seventh Chess Classic title and fifth in a row at that.
Shirov, the author of bestseller 'Fire on Board', could not quite ignite the tactical complexities he was hoping for and was outclassed by Anand in all departments of the game.
It was another Ruy Lopez, certainly the favoured opening of this match by both players, featuring for the fifth time in six games played so far.
Playing white, Anand repeated the variation he played in a previous game and his homework came good as Shirov fell in to a positional trick leading to material loss.
With clinical precision, Anand won an exchange and did not give any chance thereafter. The game lasted just 30 moves.
"I am delighted with this result", said Anand after the game.
The fifth game was more enterprising from Shirov's perspective but his hunt for the elusive victory just doesn't seem to end in this match.
Anand on his part did well to keep his pieces active and the routine exchanges led to end game in which Anand was forced to part with a pawn.
Shirov had problems in keeping pace with Anand. Yet again he fell behind on the clock. The draw was agreed to after 43 moves when Shirov ended up giving perpetual checks.
"Shirov defended very well and in fact in the end I had to be little bit careful which I think I managed and I was within drawing distance. But it was a touch encounter," observed Anand.
In the Chess 960 match being organised simultaneously, Levon Aronian of Armenia held defending champion Peter Svidler of Russia twice to keep the scores level on 3-3 after six games.
There are two more games to be played in this variant of the game too and Aronian has shown confidence and ability to work things out for the better.
Grandmasters Alexcander Grishchuk of Russia, Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia, Etienne Bacrot of France, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria and Rustam Dautov of Germany share the lead in the Ordix open with absolute scores after 5 rounds.
The Ordix open is a Rapid tournament and is another important part of the Chess Classic.
The moves:
Alexei Shirov v/s Viswanathan Anand, 5th game: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Nbd2 Nc5 10. c3 d4 11. Bxe6 Nxe6 12. cxd4 Ncxd4 13. a4 Bb4 14. axb5 Nxb5 15. Ne4 O-O 16. Be3 Qxd1 17. Rfxd1 a5 18. Nfg5 Nxg5 19. Nxg5 Rfe8 20. f4 f6 21. Nf3 fxe5 22. fxe5 c5 23. Rac1 Rac8 24. Kf2 h6 25. Rd7 Nc7 26. Bxc5 Ne6 27. Be3 Rxc1 28. Bxc1 Rc8 29. Rd1 Rc2+ 30. Kg3 Kf7 31. h4 Kg6 32. Rf1 Re2 33. Kh3 Nc5 34. Rd1 Ne4 35. Rd7 h5 36. Rc7 Nf2+ 37. Kg3 Nd3 38. Rc6+ Kf7 39. e6+ Kg8 40. Ng5 Kf8 41. Nh7+ Kg8 42. Ng5 Kf8 43. Nh7+ Kg8 draw agreed.
Viswanathan Anand v/s Alexei Shirov, 6th game: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. h3 Bb7 9. d3 d6 10. a3 Qd7 11. Nc3 Nd8 12. d4 exd4 13. Nxd4 Re8 14. Nf5 Bf8 15. Bg5 Bxe4 16. Nxe4 Rxe4 17. Rxe4 Qxf5 18. Bxf6 Qxe4 19. Bd5 Qf4 20. Bxa8 Qxf6 21. c3 c6 22. Qd4 Qe6 23. Qb6 Qc8 24. Re1 Qd7 25. Qxa6 d5 26. a4 bxa4 27. Qxa4 g6 28. Rd1 Bc5 29. b4 Bb6 30. c4 black resigned.