Boris Gelfand Leads London Grand Prix

Boris Gelfand continued his good start to the 2012 FIDE London Grand Prix by beating Wang Hao in round four to take the sole lead with 3 points.

Gelfand's former co-leaders had varying fortunes. Peter Leko was unable to achieve any advantage against Michael Adams and had to settle for a draw.  Shakhriyar Mamedyarov saddled himself with an ugly, passive position and Alexander Grischuk ensured that he paid the full price in the only other decisive game of the day.

The standings after 4 rounds:

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Boris Gelfand and Wang Hao

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Alexander Grischuk and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

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Peter Leko and Michael Adams

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Anish Giri and Vassily Ivanchuk

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Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Leinier Dominguez Perez

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Hikaru Nakamura and Veselin Topalov

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The London Grand Prix is the first tournament of the 2012/13 FIDE Grand Prix series. After the first contest in London, the series moves on to Tashkent, Lisbon, Madrid, Berlin and Paris.  Each tournament is a single round-robin featuring 12 out of the 18 players in the Grand Prix, and each player competes in four of the six events.  Details of dates and participants can be found here.

The overall winner and runner-up of the Grand Prix qualify for the March 2014 Candidates Tournament.

The schedule for the London Grand Prix:

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Rounds start at 14:00 local time (13:00 UTC). The time control is 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in 1 hour, then an extra 15 minutes to a finish with a 30 second increment after the second time control.

Draws can only be claimed for triple-repetition of position, theoretical draws, or 50-move rule.

The official regulations for the 2012 FIDE Grand Prix can be found here.

Official website here. Games via TWIC. Photos by Macauley Peterson at the official website.

Look out for coverage at Chess.com/TV!