Ivanchuk On A Roll, Grabs Sole Lead In Wijk Aan Zee

After four rounds it's GM Vassily Ivanchuk, the oldest participant in the Tata Steel masters in Wijk aan Zee, who tops the standings.

The 45-year-old Ukrainian defeated GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on Tuesday to reach 3.5/4 (and a 3059 performance). Two players are trailing by half a point: GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Ding Liren.

World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen won his first game of 2015; he defeated GM Loek van Wely as Black.

In the challengers group, three players who won today are in the lead: GM David Navara, GM Wei Yi and GM Robin van Kampen.

“He's a great player. At any moment he can beat anyone,” said GM Fabiano Caruana about GM Vassily Ivanchuk during a press conference. So far the Ukrainian is reminding us in Wijk aan Zee that it's still the case!

On Tuesday he won another rather quick game as White, versus GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who basically blundered. 

In a 6...Ng4 Najdorf, both sides castled queenside, and commentator GM Yasser Seirawan didn't like MVL's knight maneuvers. Ivanchuk centralized all his pieces and suddenly, on move 28, the black pieces on the queenside were all on the wrong squares.

After 30...Nb5 MVL instantly resigned, having seen it all. Ivanchuk signed the score sheets and walked away immediately. Two minutes later he gave the following lines in the live commentary:

Co-leader GM Fabiano Caruana couldn't keep the pace; he drew with GM Wesley So. In a Closed Ruy Lopez with 6.d3, Black played the interesting, Breyer-like 9...Nb8!?

“I couldn't remember what to do,” said Caruana. “Maybe I was slightly better at some point but I misplayed it. His ...f5 was very strong; he started to get a lot of counterplay.”

“He surprised me with a draw offer early on, but I wanted to play a few more moves, which turned out to be an incorrect decision. I was worse, but I think I more or less managed to hold it.”

Caruana agreed that So has become a very strong player:

“Very talented. If he keeps doing whatever he's doing he has chances to play the Candidates and maybe even winning it. He's still young... I shouldn't be saying that, I sound like an old man!”

Here's the full press conference given by Caruana:

The Italian GM now ties for second place with GM Ding Liren. The 22-year-old Chinese player remained faithful to his King's Indian, even when his opponent is a renowned KID player himself: GM Teimour Radjabov.

White did well out of the opening, but then started making mistakes, as GM Dejan Bojkov explains:

It took him four rounds, but GM Magnus Carlsen finally won a game as well. His 4...d5 against the Fianchetto Grünfeld avoided early simplifications, but GM Loek van Wely had a slight edge out of the opening nonetheless.

However, going for the ending might not be the best choice there, and then the Dutch champion started to drift.

GM Baadur Jobava again showed his creativity in the opening, but it was one of those days where he wasn't rewarded. In a Moscow Semi-Slav he played e2-e3, and a move later e3-e4! He had to answer ...Bb4+ with Ke2, which is a known idea in those positions.

GM Ivan Saric initially missed a strong response (13...e5!) but the Croatian GM soon took over the initiative anyway. Jobava decided to sacrifice a piece, but he never got enough compensation.

On the day GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek was celebrating his 28th birthday, he wasn't seriously put to the test by GM Levon Aronian. His Catalan/English hybrid allows Black to create a natural and solid setup where White's slightly better development is not difficult to meet.

The shortest game of the round was GM Hou Yifan vs GM Anish Giri. After a quick draw, commentator Seirawan reminded the young Dutchman that he has a bad score against the women's world champion.

“Yes, she always plays well against me,” said Giri with a wry smile.

2015 Tata Steel Masters | Round 4 Standings

Whereas the word “spectacular” was used for the masters on the previous day, this time it's an apt description for the challengers. Six decisive games!

GM David Navara gladly accepted an exchange sacrifice from IM Ari Dale, defended accurately and netted the point. The talented Chinese GM Wei Yi followed suit by beating GM Valentina Gunina after perhaps some last-minute advice from his compatriot!?

GM Erwin l'Ami defeated GM Bart Michiels, but that couldn't be called a smooth victory. The Dutch GM played a nice positional game, but somewhere he lost his advantage — well, his winning chances. With RB vs R and two pawns the position was obviously a draw, but in practice it's always difficult to defend.

2015 Tata Steel Challengers | Round 4 Standings

The Tata Steel tournament takes place January 9-25 in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The rounds start Saturday at 1:30pm local time, which is 4:30am Pacific, 7:30am New York and 11:30pm Sydney. The last round starts 1.5 hours earlier.