Carlsen On A Roll At Amber
After losing badly on the first day of the Amber blindfold and rapid tournament in Nice, world #1 Magnus Carlsen (pictured) has stormed back to share the overall lead by recording three consecutive 2-0 wins.
Today's customer was underdog Jan Smeets, who now sits firmly in last place after his loss to the Norwegian.
Vassily Ivanchuk retains a share of lead by beating Lev Aronian in their rapid game, while Boris Gelfand had an inspired round, crushing Vladimir Kramnik 2-0 to leapfrog past him up to third in the standings.
It was a thrilling day all around, with just 2 draws from the 12 games played.
The full results in round 4:
| Blind | Carlsen-Smeets | 1-0 |
| Ivanchuk-Aronian | ½-½ | |
| Svidler-Karjakin | 0-1 | |
| Blind | Gelfand-Kramnik | 1-0 |
| Ponomariov-Gashimov | ½-½ | |
| Grischuk-Dominguez | 1-0 | |
| Rapid | Smeets-Carlsen | 0-1 |
| Aronian-Ivanchuk | 0-1 | |
| Karjakin-Svidler | 0-1 | |
| Rapid | Kramnik-Gelfand | 0-1 |
| Gashimov-Ponomariov | 1-0 | |
| Dominguez-Grischuk | 0-1 |
The overall standings after four rounds:
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 6 |
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 6 |
| Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 5 |
| Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 5 |
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 4½ |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 4 |
| Svidler, Peter | RUS | 3½ |
| Gashimov, Vugar | AZE | 3½ |
| Karjakin, Sergey | UKR | 3½ |
| Aronian, Levon | ARM | 3½ |
| Dominguez Perez, Leinier | CUB | 2 |
| Smeets, Jan | NED | 1½ |
A selection of today's games are below. All games are available at the official website. Tomorrow is a rest day, so round 5 is on Thursday.
