Nanjing R4: three more draws
Sunday was another relatively quiet day in Nanjing where three more draws left Aronian and Bu still topping the standings. They're on plus one; Topalov drew all his games thus far.The 1st Pearl Spring Super GM Tournament takes place December 11- 21 in Nanjing, China. It's a six-player double round robin event with Veselin Topalov ( 2791), Vassily Ivanchuk (2786), Levon Aronian (2757), Sergei Movsesian (2732) Peter Svidler (2727) and Bu Xiangzhi (2714). Live games start daily at 15:00 local time which is early morning for Western countries (08:00 CET, 02:00 EST). Movsesian's White openings are rather timid these days but one could also classify them as practical; his Giuoco Piano avoids tons of Marshall (or other Ruy Lopez'es) theory and his approach of Topalov's repertoire fits in this story: 3.Bb5+. Unfortunately it doesn't exactly lead to the most fascinating games; soon after all forces were mobilized Movsesian and Topalov repeated moves.Bu and Ivanchuk left Gruenfeld (Benoni?) theory quite early - 9.d5 seems to be new already - and since White would surely win back his sacrificed pawn, he got a tiny edge out of the opening, but with many exchanges Black equalized comfortably.Svidler-Aronian was clearly the best game of the round. Black's Marshall was avoided with Tiviakov's 6.Qe2 and it was followed by some more original opening play. In the middlegame Black had some initiative on the queenside but Svidler's timely reaction on the other side of the board held the balance.Games of the 4th round:
[TABLE=526] [TABLE=529]The following photos were kindly provided by the tournament organisers for download; we've not tried color correction in order not to destroy the work of an artist.
Bu Xiangzhi
Levon Aronian
Veselin Topalov
Sergei Movsesian
Peter Svidler
Vassily Ivanchuk
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