Karjakin, Carlsen and Van Wely scored wins

Annotated games:

Carlsen – Ivanchuk / Svidler – Carlsen / Nisipeanu – Ivanchuk / Carlsen – Van Wely

Eljanov-Carlsen

With today’s win, Magnus Carlsen is only 0.6 points away from the 2nd place on FIDE rating list. See Hans Arild Runde’s list for more details. Another junior, Sergey Karjakin, breaks into sole second place in Foros standings after beating Dmitry Jakovenko.

Round 4 results:

Van Wely, Loek 1 – 0 Alekseev, Evgeny

Eljanov, Pavel 0 – 1 Carlsen, Magnus

Svidler, Peter ½ – ½ Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter

Ivanchuk, Vassily ½ – ½ Onischuk, Alexander

Karjakin, Sergey 1 – 0 Jakovenko, Dmitry

Shirov, Alexei ½ – ½ Volokitin, Andrei

Round 4 standings:

1. Magnus Carlsen 2765 – 3.5

2. Sergey Karjakin 2732 – 3.0

3. Alexei Shirov 2740 – 2.5

4-6. Pavel Eljanov 2687, Andrei Volokitin 2684 and Vassily Ivanchuk 2740 – 2.0

7-12. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2684, Dmitry Jakovenko 2711, Evgeny Alekseev 2711, Alexander Onischuk 2664, Peter Svidler 2746 and Loek Van Wely 2676 – 1.5

Photos:

Round 1 / More on the tournament website

Neither of the players on 2nd place tie scored a win, Cheparinov with 4th consecutive defeat

Round 4 results:

Kamsky Gata 2726 ½ – ½ Grischuk Alexander 2716

Adams Michael 2729 1 – 0 Navara David 2672

Bacrot Etienne 2705 ½ – ½ Karjakin Sergey 2732

Yue Wang 2689 1 – 0 Cheparinov Ivan 2695

Svidler Peter 2746 ½ – ½ Radjabov Teimour 2751

Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 ½ – ½ Gashimov Vugar 2679

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 1 – 0 Carlsen Magnus 2765

Tomorrow LIVE on Chessdom: Magnus Carlsen vs Gata Kamsky. See you there!

All news about Baku Grand Prix

Mamedyarov stood with his words that he will be more careful in the following rounds and started off with relatively quiet Queen’s Indian. Carlsen defended with precision and held equal position until a small inaccuracy allowed white to launch kingside assault. Still no permanent damage was done, but an attempt of counter-activity 30…a5 hit him back on the head after Mamedyarov found deflecting sacrifice. Everything was over in the next few moves. Mamedyarov revealed that fan letter from Ireland raised his spirit before the round. Replay the game with commentary.

Navara was well prepared to run into Adams’ favorite Tarasch variation of French defence. Already on 8th move he deviated from Adams-Berg, Crete 2007 and on 9th played a novelty. Our commentator IM David Kanovsky was delighted to see an open fight from the very beginning, and particularly after his friend Navara took over the initiative with black. Adams surprised us all when deciding for a Queens exchange being two pawns down, but his pair of Rooks and annoying Knight “forced” black to make a mistake 33…Kg8 and English Grandmaster nets second win in this tournament.

Unlike Mamedyarov, Bulgarian star Cheparinov is not even considering safe option. After three consecutive defeats, he still chose sharp Benoni defence against Wang Yue. Instead of settling for equal position, black initiated complications with 21…Bd4. Everything was still under control, but new inaccuracies granted the advantage to Chinese. He went on to win the game and Cheparinov was left with no points after four rounds.

Grischuk once again used moves repetition to bypass Sofia rules, this time with black pieces against Kamsky. The strategy must be working great as Grischuk remains sole leader after the 4th round. Svidler certainly had to count with Janish Gambit in Ruy Lopez as Radjabov’s weapon of choice against 1. e4. Russian still used more time on the clock but game ended in a fair draw. Radjabov commented that eternal debate over the gambit correctness won’t affect his desire to continue with playing Janish.

Michael Adams and Gata Kamsky

Round 4 standings:

1. Grischuk Alexander 2716 RUS – 3.0

2-7. Kamsky Gata 2726 USA, Radjabov Teimour 2751 AZE, Karjakin Sergey 2732 UKR, Gashimov Vugar 2679 AZE, Adams Michael 2729 ENG and Yue Wang 2689 CHN – 2.5

8-10. Carlsen Magnus 2765 NOR, Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752 AZE and Bacrot Etienne 2705 FRA – 2.0

11-12. Svidler Peter 2746 RUS and Inarkiev Ernesto 2684 RUS – 1.5

13. Navara David 2672 CZE – 1.0

14. Cheparinov Ivan 2695 BUL – 0.0

Round 5 on 25th April at 15:00 local time

Carlsen Magnus 2765 - Kamsky Gata 2726

Gashimov Vugar 2679 - Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2752

Radjabov Teimour 2751 - Inarkiev Ernesto 2684

Cheparinov Ivan 2695 - Svidler Peter 2746

Karjakin Sergey 2732 - Wang Yue 2689

Navara David 2672 - Bacrot Etienne 2705

Grischuk Alexander 2716 - Adams Michael 2729

Morelia Linares – 4th round report, replayable games

Round 4 results:

Vishy Anand – Teimour Radjabov draw

Vassily Ivanchuk – Levon Aronian 0-1

Alexei Shirov – Veselin Topalov 1-0

Magnus Carlsen – Peter Leko draw

Round 4 standings:

1-3. Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov and Levon Aronian 2.5

4-5. Alexei Shirov and Peter Leko 2.0

6-8. Teimour Radjabov, Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk 1.5

Teimour Radjabov is commonly employing Ruy Lopez Jaenish Gambit, but it was a bit of surprise seeing him play it against Vishwanatan Anand, particularly after the painful defeat at the hands of Bart Macieja that got him knocked off from the World Cup. Anand didn’t play Macieja’s 12. c3 and left us all wonder on how would Radjabov improve this variation. Probably with some timely Bd4, as it happened in the game (see bellow), thus not allowing combinations with c4-c5. Radjabov easily equalized and draw was agreed soon after.

Peter Leko was well prepared to answer Magnus Carlsen’s favorite Capablanca system in the Nimzo-Indian defence. He pushed his central pawns forward and Carlsen also helped with tame 17. Be2. It looked like pawn grab on g2 would give better chances to black, but Leko spent another move on consolidating his pieces. This was just enough for Carlsen to equalize with timely 18. e4! Another good move, 27. Nb5!, and white already claimed small advantage. However, allowing trade of the knight for enemy bishop, probably during the time trouble, seccured an easy draw for Leko and scoresheets were signed right after the first time control.

Vassily Ivanchuk – Levon Aronian 0-1

The innocent-looking Anti-Marshall turned out to be unpleasant for Levon Aronian as his bishop on d5 hung dangerously in the air, while Vassily Ivanchuk was launching assault on the black king at the same time. It soon left white being two pawns ahead and enjoying decisive advantage. Unfortunately for Ivanchuk, he missed astute 37…Rc4! and immediately made another mistake 38. Qh6? (38. Qe5 would keep things unclear) that lost him piece for little compensation. Aronian then displayed fantastic technique and gradually converted the advantage.

Instead of the usual Naidorf Sicilian, Veselin Topalov opted for Sveshnikov/Pelikan, variation that he used to play in the past. He introduced novelty 17…Nd5 (17…Rc8 played earlier), but this allowed Alexei Shirov to quickly push b2-b4. Probably the queens exchange was initial trigger for difficulties as Topalov was left with weak bishop against beautiful knight and with little counterplay. In the resulting sophisticated endgame with two pairs of rooks both players have allowed few inaccuracies, but Topalov’s 45…Kg7? should account to his loss since Shirov ruthlessly executed given extra pawn.

Goran Urosevic

Round 5 pairings:

Peter Leko – Vishy Anand

Veselin Topalov – Magnus Carlsen

Levon Aronian – Alexei Shirov

Teimour Radjabov – Vassily Ivanchuk

Join us on Wednesday at 16:30 EST / 22:30 CET for the live commentary on the 5th round of Morelia-Linares. See you there!