The Week in Chess

The fourth round of the Tata Steel tournament took place in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Their preparation for the game was somewhat disrupted by the photo calls and interviews prior to the round but the players seemed happy to trade this for the increased exposure it produced for the tournament.

Levon Aronian beat Hikaru Nakamura in convincing style trading quite quickly into an ending. Aronian felt that Nakamura underestimated his problems otherwise he wouldn't have offered a draw after 22...Rd8. Although Aronian still thought "Generally you should be able to hold this position with black." Aronian also felt that in retrospect he should have played 34.Nxb7 grabbing the pawn and calculating the counter-play as he wasn't so sure he was winning after 36...Bc1. Nakamura commented "Spend 50 minutes looking for the best losing line. Then Aronian doesn't go 34.Nxb7, but I return the favor immediately by going Bd2 not Bc1". The computers suggested that there may be later counter-play for black with his king penetrating on the king-side but neither player seemed to look at that over the board and Aronian quickly converted.

Boris Gelfand was disappointed he couldn't play a better game against Arkadij Naiditsch when he was caught by surprise with some good preparation in the King's Indian Averbakh Variation and the game was drawn.

Loek van Wely was slightly disappointed with his draw against Pentala Harikrishna who came up with a tricky move at the board and Van Wely didn't take the risks necessary to have a chance for an advantage. "When he made his move Bd5 I realised it was probably going to be very hard [to win]"

Sergey Karjakin defeated Richard Rapport in 44 moves in a Winawer French in 44 moves but wasn't entirely please with his play. First of all he had looked at this variation and had the feeling he had a convincing answer but it was so long ago he couldn't remember. Later he allowed much more counter-play than was necessary (32.Ra1 was better) and felt he was extremely lucky to have anything after black's queen entered the game. Whilst Karjakin was probably still much better 33...Qd3 exchanging queens was the losing move from Rapport after which the game finished quickly.

Anish Giri couldn't quite convert his advantage against Wesley So and settle for a draw. Giri wasn't sure that he was that close to winning but was prepared to be contradicted. This is Giri's first event with Vladimir Tukmakov as coach he said he reached a decent level three years ago implying that he had stagnated since then and this was a new approach.

Leinier Dominguez Perez won a marathon game shattering his own pawn structure but gaining the better bishop which he then gradually used to win in a fine ending.

Round 4 standings: Aronian 3.0pts, Harikrishna, Karjakin, So, Giri 2.5pts, Dominguez, Caruana, Nakamura 2.0pts, Van Wely, Rapport 1.5pts, Naiditsch, Gelfand 1pt

Round 5 Friday 17th Jan 2014 12:30pm: Harikrishna-Giri, Caruana-Van Wely, Rapport-Dominguez, Nakamura-Karjakin, Naiditsch-Aronian, So-Gelfand.

Round 5 B-Group on Thursday.