Official Website Round 4 Report

A fine technical victory with white over Gata Kamsky of the U.S. in fourth-round action brought Armenia’s Levon Aronian back on top of the standings in Grandmaster Group A of the 74th annual Tata Steel Chess Tournament at Wijk-aan-Zee Tuesday.

The world’s second highest ranked player was level with Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, who headed the field as the sole leader at the outset of the round but had to settle for a draw with black in a hard-fought Berlin Wall game against Fabiano Caruana of Italy.

Referring to his defeat at Carlsen’s hands the day before, Aronian expressed his joy at finding himself “on the other side today. This time it was me who was pressing, and even though I also managed to let my opponent get away, in the end he was the one to make the final mistake.”

“It feels great, especially with the rest day ahead. On the whole, I think I’m doing alright. I mean, apart from yesterday, when I was playing badly …It is so eventful, this edition of the tournament! Normally, I win three games in a whole year. Here, I win three times in the first four rounds,” said Aronian, whose victory earned him the daily 500-euro “Piet Zwart Prize,” funded by the municipalities of Velsen and Beverwijk.

 

 

Carlsen, meanwhile, had the worse play in his encounter with Caruana. If he is to break Gary Kasparov’s Elo-record of 2851 points, as was suggested in a French chess publication recently, he’ll need more than the kind of draw with which he came away on Tuesday.

“Carlsen is going to suffer,” predicted Dutch champion Anish Giri, who was watching the Norwegian’s performance on a monitor in the press room after he had agreed to a quick draw in his own game with white against last year’s Tata winner Hikaru Nakamura of the U.S.

 

“Caruana has a clear advantage,” Giri evaluated the position after Italian’s 29th move, only to see Caruana propose a draw a mere five moves later. “Why offer a draw? The computer said you were vastly better,” Giri asked Caruana indignantly when the latter joined him in the press room. “Was I? I may have had some chances at one point, but it wasn’t that clear at all,” came the reply. “Anyway, a draw against Carlsen always is a good result.”

Carlsen seemed to agree. “My play wasn’t great today,” he admitted. “I did something wrong … well, I was worse, though I felt it may not have been as good for him as it looked.”

 

 

The second Berlin Wall game in Tuesday’s round produced a clear-cut win for Sergey Karjakin of the Ukraine, who had lost his games in the first two rounds, recovered with a resounding victory over Giri in the third and notched up another full point against David Navara of the Czech Republic in the fourth.

“Two wins in a row,” a relieved Karjakin told reporters after the game. “You’ll understand I’m in a great mood. Actually, with the queens off the board so quickly, as is usual in this opening, chances for a draw are high and normally, he should have agreed to a draw by repetition. But after we had repeated moves two times, he decided to try for more. He should have been more careful. But he went too far and my position gradually became better and better,” Karjakin said. After 60 moves Navara resigned the resulting pawn ending.

 

 

The other games of the round were all drawn, with most attention going to the encounter between Vassily Ivanchuk of the Ukraine and Holland’s Loek van Wely. Playing black in a Catalan, ‘Lucky’ Loek seemed to be in for a rough ride but found a nice way out sacrificing a bishop. ‘Chucky's mistake was 25.h4? Had he gone 25.Rc1 instead, he would have prevented Van Wely’s 25…d4!, which was the introduction to the sacrifice.

That was fun, to be sure – for Van Wely and his Dutch fans in the audience, that is – but even more fun was Chucky's subsequent reaction. The Ukrainian, clearly disgusted over his own dismal performance, sadly shook his head, groaned audibly while signing his score sheet, then tried to rip the hair from his scalp and finally left the tournament arena after a nasty karate kick against the door guarding the players’ exit.

 

 

 

The other games ended more peacefully. Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan sacrificed a rook to obtain a perpetual check against Israel’s Boris Gelfand after 30 moves from a King’s Indian.

 

 

Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov and Azerbaijan’s Vugar Gashimov took a bit longer. Their Queen’s Gambit resulted in a Queens ending that lasted 55 moves before Topalov realized that his extra pawn was insufficient for a win.

 

 

 

 

 

The standings after 4 rounds in Group A:

Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2835	3
Aronian, Levon	ARM	2805	3
Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	2736	2½
Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	2773	2½
Ivanchuk, Vassily	UKR	2766	2
Giri, Anish	NED	2714	2
Van Wely, Loek	NED	2692	2
Topalov, Veselin	BUL	2770	2
Karjakin, Sergey	RUS	2769	2
Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2759	1½
Gashimov, Vugar	AZE	2761	1½
Gelfand, Boris	ISR	2739	1½
Kamsky, Gata	USA	2732	1½
Navara, David	CZE	2712	1

 

India’s Pentala Harikrishna kept the lead in Grandmaster Group B with 3.5/4 after a 40-move draw with white against Lithuania’s Viktorija Cmilyte.

 

 

 

The 250-euro daily Piet Zwart Prize in this section of the tournament was awarded to Russia’s Alexander Motylev for his victory in 40 moves with white from a Scandinavian opening against Holland’s Sergei Tiviakov.

 

 

The results in Group B:

Harikrishna, Pentala	½-½	Cmilyte, Viktorija
Motylev, Alexander	1-0	Tiviakov, Sergei
Reinderman, Dimitri	½-½	Harika, Dronavalli
Nyzhnyk, Illya	½-½	Potkin, Vladimir
Vocaturo, Daniele	½-½	Timman, Jan H
Bruzon Batista, Lazaro	½-½	Lahno, Kateryna
Ernst, Sipke	1-0	L'Ami, Erwin

 

The standings in Group B:

Harikrishna, Pentala	IND	2665	3½
L'Ami, Erwin	NED	2596	2½
Motylev, Alexander	RUS	2677	2½
Reinderman, Dimitri	NED	2581	2
Timman, Jan H	NED	2571	2
Tiviakov, Sergei	NED	2677	2
Nyzhnyk, Illya	UKR	2568	2
Lahno, Kateryna	UKR	2557	2
Vocaturo, Daniele	ITA	2545	2
Bruzon Batista, Lazaro	CUB	2691	1½
Potkin, Vladimir	RUS	2684	1½
Ernst, Sipke	NED	2606	1½
Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU	2503	1½
Harika, Dronavalli	IND	2516	1½

 

In Grandmaster Group C, the daily prize of 100 euros went to Baskaran Adhiban for his win over fellow Indian Sahaj Grover in 38 moves from a Nimzo Indian .

 

 

Maxim Turov of Russia downed Holland’s Anne Haast in 38 moves from a Caro-Kann, notching up his fourth consecutive win to remain on top of the field in this group.

 

 

The results in Group C:

Tikkanen, Hans	1-0	Goudriaan, Etienne
Sadler, Matthew D	½-½	Brandenburg, Daan
Ootes, Lars	1-0	Danielian, Elina
Grover, Sahaj	0-1	Adhiban, Baskaran
Tania, Sachdev	0-1	Paehtz, Elisabeth
Haast, Anne	0-1	Turov, Maxim

 

The standings in Group C:

Turov, Maxim	RUS	2645	4
Tikkanen, Hans	SWE	2549	3
Adhiban, Baskaran	IND	2561	3
Sadler, Matthew D	ENG	2660	2½
Goudriaan, Etienne	NED	2279	2½
Brandenburg, Daan	NED	2527	2
Ootes, Lars	NED	2326	2
Grover, Sahaj	IND	2532	2
Paehtz, Elisabeth	GER	2454	1½
Tania, Sachdev	IND	2411	1½
Haast, Anne	NED	2290	1
Danielian, Elina	ARM	2490	1
Hopman, Pieter	NED	2342	½
Schut, Lisa	NED	2290	½

 

 

Report and photos from the official website coverage. Videos by Freshmen media.