Petrosian Memorial R4: All Draws, Some Missed Opportunities

All games in round four of the Petrosian Memorial ended in draws, and so Alexander Grischuk maintained his one-point lead over Vladimir Kramnik.

In some games, the players missed critical tactics.

While most chess fans focused on the first game in Sochi today, more top chess was played in Moscow where the Petrosian Memorial resumed after the rest day.

All games ended in draws, but in several games a decisive result was possibly in the cards.

Why not try to find two of those tactics yourself?

Well, let's just go to these games first then! Leko will be kicking himself for not winning his game against Aronian; he played well, found a very promising piece sacrifice, continued his attack but missed a win at least twice. It's easy to write all this helped by the computer, but fact is that Leko came very close.

Morozevich-Inarkiev was a fascinating game that deserves a much deeper analysis and a wider live audience — hopefully some chess fans switched from Sochi to Moscow during the day! Below is the game with a few notes, including the solution to the puzzle of course.

Kramnik and Gelfand played a Bg5 Grünfeld that was also seen in the game Carlsen-Grischuk, Stavanger 2014 — one of those endgame grinds the world champion is famous for. Kramnik went for a different plan as White, though, but it lacked punch as Gelfand quickly seemed to equalize. 

And what about Grischuk? Did he have chances to score his fourth game in a row? Not really. He and Ding Liren followed a game from this year's Stavanger tournament as well (Kramnik-Caruana) and the Chinese GM was the one who might have had a small edge. 

2014 Petrosian Memorial | Round 4 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pts	SB
1	Grischuk,A	2795	3063			½			1	1	1	3.5/4
2	Kramnik,V	2760	2815			½	½		½		1	2.5/4
3	Ding Liren	2730	2770	½	½		½	½				2.0/4	5.00
4	Leko,P	2731	2752		½	½		½		½		2.0/4	4.00
5	Aronian,L	2797	2736			½	½		½	½		2.0/4	3.50
6	Gelfand,B	2759	2672	0	½			½			½	1.5/4	2.75
7	Morozevich,A	2724	2665	0			½	½			½	1.5/4	2.50
8	Inarkiev,E	2688	2569	0	0				½	½		1.0/4

2014 Petrosian Memorial | Pairings & Results

The Petrosian Memorial is held 3-11 November in Moscow. The prize fund is € 100,000 sponsored by Tashir Group.| Games via TWIC