Aronian and Anand join Topalov in lead

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!