Round Four At Medias
Despite some tough fighting chess in the fourth round of the Bazna Kings tournament in Medias, Romania, all three games ended drawn.
Hikaru Nakamura pressurised Vassily Ivanchuk in a Nimzo-Indian, winning a pawn but failing to make headway in a double rook ending.
Magnus Carlsen achieved an easy game as black using the Caro-Kann, even winning a pawn from Sergey Karjakin, but once again it wasn't enough for a win.
Teimour Radjabov (pictured) is one of the few brave players prepared to try the speculative 3...f5!? Schliemann variation against the Ruy Lopez, and he was rewarded with a comfortable draw against Nisipeanu.
The standings after four rounds:
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2815 | 2½ |
| Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2776 | 2 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2774 | 2 |
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2776 | 2 |
| Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | ROU | 2659 | 2 |
| Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2744 | 1½ |
Round five is tomorrow (15 June).
Games start at 15:30 local time (12:30 UTC) except the last round which is 2 hours earlier.
The time control is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes to finish with a 30 second increment after move 60.
The official site with live broadcasts of the games is here, and the full draw can be found here.
