Zurich Game 4 Drawn: Aronian Wins Rapid
The real world Berlin Wall yielded to external pressure many years ago, but its chess equivalent continues to frustrate the best players in the world.
Lev Aronian took on Vladimir Kramnik in his favourite Berlin Defence in game 4 of their 6-game match today, and emphatically failed to make any progress. The game ended in a draw after 25 moves, but the silver lining for fans was that since the game had lasted less than 3 hours, under the match rules a bonus rapid game was played.
The rapid game proved far more entertaining, with Aronian winning with the black pieces. Unfortunately for the Armenian, the rapid game victory won't count towards the match score, but it may give him a little psychological boost with just two regular games left in the match.
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| Name | Nat | Elo | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Pts |
| Levon Aronian | ARM | 2820 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | . | . | 2 |
| Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | 2801 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | . | . | 2 |
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Tomorrow (Thursday) is a rest day, so game five takes place on Friday when Kramnik will have the white pieces for the last time.
The time control in operation is 40 moves in 120 minutes, followed by 20 moves in 60 minutes, and then 15 minutes plus a 30 second increment to finish. All games start at 15:00 local time (13:00 UTC) except the final game which is 2 hours earlier. Full schedule here. The main sponsor is IGC (International Gemological Laboratories).
Chess.com is covering all the games LIVE!
For full details look here.
The official website also has live commentary in a mixture of English and German from two Swiss players, GM Yannick Pelletier and IM Werner Hug.
