Aronian rejoins Carlsen in the lead in Wijk aan Zee

Levon Aronian rejoined Magnus Carlsen in the lead at the 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. On Tuesday the Armenian grandmaster defeated Gata Kamsky with White, while tournament leader Carlsen drew with the black pieces against Fabiano Caruana. After two losses Sergey Karjakin won his second consecutive game, against David Navara. Going into the first rest day, both Pentala Harikrishna (B group) and Maxim Turov (C group) are leading by a full point.

Perhaps it's too early to say so, but the 74th edition of the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee seems destined to become a fierce and fantastic fight between the two highest rated players, Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen. And who will make their life more difficult, a young chap like Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin, Teimour Radjabov, or perhaps Veselin Topalov, or Vassily Ivanchuk?

We'll know more after Wednesday, which is the first of three rest days in the Grandmaster Groups A, B and C. (Some of the players are intending to play some football on one of the squares in Wijk aan Zee, but unfortunately the weather doesn't seem to cooperate nicely...)

After his game against Gata Kamsky, Levon Aronian felt that he had been in the same situation as the day before - his loss against Magnus Carlsen - but this time on the other side.

I was the one who was pressing, also managed to let my opponent get away but in the end he was the last one to make a mistake.

[Event "74th Tata Steel GMA"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2012.01.17"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Aronian, Levon"]
[Black "Kamsky, Gata"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A15"]
[WhiteElo "2805"]
[BlackElo "2732"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/4k3/3R4/2PnN1p1/1P6/7P/1r6/5K2 w - - 0 52"]
[PlyCount "12"]
[EventDate "2012.01.14"]

52... Ne3+ $2 (52... Nf4 {was probably the last chance.}) 53. Ke1 Nc2+ 54. Kd1
Nxb4 55. Rb6 $1 {Thanks to the pin, White is winning in all lines.} Kf8 56.
Rb8+ Kg7 (56... Ke7 57. Rxb4) 57. Nc4 Rb3 58. c6 1-0

Sergey Karjakin shares one thing with Levon Aronian: after four rounds the Russian grandmaster hasn't drawn a single game. His game on Tuesday should have been a draw, though, but in the famous Berlin Endgame, David Navara avoided a move repetition and then started to make mistakes.

[Event "74th Tata Steel GMA"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2012.01.17"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Navara, David"]
[Black "Karjakin, Sergey"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C67"]
[WhiteElo "2712"]
[BlackElo "2769"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2b1k3/p1p1bpp1/1pp5/4Pn1r/2P1NB1p/1P3N1P/P4PP1/3R1K2 w - - 0 22"]
[PlyCount "77"]
[EventDate "2012.01.14"]

22... Bd8 23. Nfg5 Be7 24. Nf3 Bd8 25. Nfg5 Be7 26. Rd3 c5 27. Nf3 Bb7 28. Nc3
Bxf3 29. Rxf3 Nd4 30. Rd3 Ne6 31. Bh2 a6 32. f4 c6 33. Kf2 Nd4 34. Ke3 Rh6 35.
Ne2 $6 Rg6 $1 {"This is already very unpleasant." (Karjakin)} 36. Nxd4 cxd4+
37. Kf3 c5 38. g4 hxg3 39. Bxg3 f5 40. exf6 Rxf6 41. b4 Rh6 42. Kg4 Re6 43. Kf3
g6 44. Bf2 Kd7 45. Ra3 cxb4 46. Rd3 Bf6 47. Bxd4 Rd6 48. Ke3 Bxd4+ 49. Rxd4
Rxd4 50. Kxd4 Kd6 51. Kd3 a5 52. a3 bxa3 53. Kc3 Kc5 54. h4 a2 55. Kb2 Kxc4 56.
f5 gxf5 57. h5 f4 58. h6 f3 59. h7 f2 60. h8=Q a1=Q+ 0-1

The round saw a small incident, related to the game between Vassily Ivanchuk and Loek van Wely. The Ukrainian was building up a nice advantage, but then he allowed his opponent to escape:

[Event "74th Tata Steel GMA"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2012.01.17"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Black "Van Wely, Loek"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E04"]
[WhiteElo "2766"]
[BlackElo "2692"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "3r2k1/6pp/pq6/1pbp1QP1/8/1P2P3/1B3P1P/R5K1 w - - 0 25"]
[PlyCount "24"]
[EventDate "2012.01.14"]

25. h4 $2 (25. Rc1) 25... d4 $1 26. Rd1 a5 27. h5 dxe3 $1 28. Rxd8+ Qxd8 29.
Qxc5 exf2+ 30. Kg2 f1=Q+ 31. Kxf1 Qd1+ 32. Kg2 Qd2+ 33. Kf3 Qxb2 34. Qxb5 Kf8
35. Qc4 Ke7 36. Kg4 Qe5 1/2-1/2

Immediately after the game ended, it became clear that Ivanchuk was hugely disappointed about losing the advantage. The round report on the official website describes it well:

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 video crew noticed as well, but eventually it was decided not to include their footage of the incident in the daily round video. You can see a bit of Chuky's reaction in one of the 'En Passant' videos, though.

Going into the first rest day, Pentala Harikrishna of India is a full point ahead of the rest after a 40-move draw with white against Lithuania’s Viktorija Cmilyte. The prize for best game of the round in this group went to Alexander Motylev for his victory against Sergei Tiviakov.

[Event "74th Tata Steel GMB"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2012.01.17"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Motylev, Alexander"]
[Black "Tiviakov, Sergei"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "2677"]
[BlackElo "2677"]
[PlyCount "73"]
[EventDate "2012.01.14"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd6 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 g6 6. Nb5 Qd8 7. c4 Bg7 8. h3
O-O 9. Be2 c5 10. d5 a6 11. Nc3 b5 12. O-O Nbd7 13. cxb5 Nb6 14. Ne5 Nfxd5 15.
Nxd5 Bxe5 16. Nxb6 Qxb6 17. Qd5 Qb8 18. b6 Bb7 19. Qxc5 Rc8 20. Qa3 Bd5 21. Rd1
e6 22. Be3 Rc2 23. Bf3 Bxb2 24. Qa4 Rc4 25. Qxc4 Bxc4 26. Rab1 Be5 27. b7 Bd5
28. Bxd5 exd5 29. Rxd5 Bc7 30. Rd7 Be5 31. bxa8=Q Qxa8 32. Bh6 Qe8 33. Rbd1 Bf6
34. R7d6 Be7 35. Re1 a5 36. Rb6 Qd8 37. Rxe7 1-0

Maxim Turov won all four games so far in Grandmaster Group C and he's also leading by a full point. The best game was played by Baskaran Adhiban against fellow Indian Sahaj Grover.

[Event "74th Tata Steel GMC"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2012.01.17"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Grover, Sahaj"]
[Black "Adhiban, Baskaran"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E34"]
[WhiteElo "2532"]
[BlackElo "2561"]
[PlyCount "76"]
[EventDate "2012.01.14"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. cxd5 Qxd5 6. Nf3 Qf5 7. Qb3 c5 8. a3
Ba5 9. dxc5 Qxc5 10. Bd2 Nc6 11. Qc2 Qe7 12. Bg5 h6 13. Bh4 O-O 14. e4 e5 15.
b4 Nxb4 16. axb4 Bxb4 17. Bxf6 gxf6 18. Nd2 Be6 19. Nd5 Bxd5 20. exd5 e4 21.
Kd1 f5 22. Bc4 Rfd8 23. Ke2 Rac8 24. Qb3 b5 25. Qg3+ Kh7 26. Bb3 Bxd2 27. Kxd2
Qb4+ 28. Ke2 Rc3 29. Qf4 Qxb3 30. Qxf5+ Kg8 31. Rhd1 Qc4+ 32. Ke1 e3 33. fxe3
Re8 34. Kf2 Rcxe3 35. Kg1 R8e5 36. Qd7 Re2 37. Rf1 Rxg2+ 38. Kxg2 Qe2+ 0-1

Daily video by the organizers

Games group A, round 4

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Round 4 standings

Games group B, round 4

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Round 4 standings

Games group C, round 4

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Round 4 standings

Vassily Ivanchuk and Veselin Topalov chatting before their game

Grandmaster Group C at the start of the 4th round

Joint analysis with Pentala Harikrishna, Tania Sachdev, Sahaj Grover and Baskaran Adhiban of India

Ilya Nyzhnyk and Vladimir Potkin looking at their game, and Anish Giri kibitzing