The return games of the fourth round of the 2015 FIDE World Cup were completed in the Fairmont Flame Towers in Baku.
Official website / Live games with analysis / Live games with chat / Round 1 pairings/ Round 2 tie-break/ Round 3 picturesque report/ Eljanov with six straight wins/ Andreikin defeats Kramnik in Russian derby/ Round 4 started with 4 wins
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave assumed the advantage against Wesley So after the American was forced to sacrifice a knight for two pawns. However, in the forced sequence of moves many pieces were exchanged and the position simplified with all remaining pawns being on the kingside.
It took a lot of patient maneuvering from black to finally destroy white’s pawn mass and achieve a victory and qualification to the 5th round.
Peter Svidler played a good game with black to hold the ground and earn a much needed draw with black against the tournament’s top seed Veselin Topalov. In the final position black is even objectively winning, but he made a practical decision and agreed to opponent’s draw offer.
At the press conference Svidler shared that he lost several consecutive games with black pieces against the Bulgarian. He broke the negative record at the best possible moment as the result enabled him to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals.
Local star Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Hikaru Nakamura comfortably drew their games with black pieces, against Fabiano Caruana and Michael Adams, respectively, to also reach the stage of best-eight.
In the Chinese derby the young prodigy Wei Yi was able to strike back against Ding Liren and equalize the score in the match, which will now be decided in the tie-breaks.
The matches Radoslaw Wojtaszek vs Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin vs Dmitry Andreikin and Dmitry Jakovenko vs Pavel Eljanov are also to be settled in quick-play on Tuesday afternoon.
The total prize fund of the 2015 FIDE World Chess Cup is 1,6 million USD. In addition, the tournament also awards two places in the 2016 Candidates Tournament, part of the FIDE World Championship cycle.
The players are getting 100% of their prizes, not 80% as most are quoting. This is because the Organizers paid the FIDE share on top of the Prize Fund.
Full set of results and pgn files can be found on http://www.bakuworldcup2015.
Photo gallery is available at http://www.bakuworldcup2015.
According to the Regulations (3.8 Tie-breaks), after a new drawing of colors, two tie-break games with the time control 25min + 10sec will be played.
If the scores are still level, then, after a new drawing of colors, a match of two games with the time control 10min + 10sec will be played.
In case of a level score, another match of two games will be played, with a blitz time control of 5min + 3sec.
If still there is no winner, one sudden-death game will be played. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces shall receive 5 minutes, the opponent with the black pieces shall receive 4 minutes whereupon, after the 60th move, both players shall receive an increment of 3 seconds for each move from move 61. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.
Wei Yi equalized the score against compatriot Ding Liren
Dmitry Jakovenko observes the game between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Fabiano Caruana
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is through to the round of best 8
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in one of his regular press conferences
Journalists playing a casual game in front of the playing hall
The match between Dmitry Andreikin and Sergey Karjakin will be decided in tiebreak
Peter Svidler eliminated former world champion Veselin Topalov
