The Week in Chess

Pavel Eljanov won a nice technical endgame against Baskaran Adhiban to lead the Tata Steel Masters going into the first rest day on Wednesday. He is being chased by Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So, both of whom also won in round 4.

Carlsen beat Wei Yi from a level position in a Bishops opening. 18...exd4 was criticised by Carlsen who then increased the pressure and in a difficult position and time trouble Wei Yi's position just collapsed. Wesley Wesley So enjoyed some advantage against Loek van Wely with black out of the opening but the result remained in the balance until time trouble intervened in So's favour.

The remaining games were drawn but Anish Giri missed a couple of wins against Dmitry Andreikin (who resisted well in a miserable position). Harikrishna-Karjakin was a fairly uneventful draw. Aronian-Nepomniachtchi was a sharp Benoni style position which finished with a repetition and both players had chances at various points in Rapport-Wojtaszek before the game was drawn.

Round 4 standings: 1st Eljanov 3.5pts 2nd Carlsen, So 3pts 4th Harikrishna, Karjakin 2.5pts 6th Giri, Andreikin, Aronian, Wei Yi 2pts 10th Nepomniachtchi, Wojtaszek 1.5pts 12th Rapport, Adhiban 1pt 14th Van Wely 0.5pts

Rest Day Wednesday 18th January 2017.

Round 5 pairings Thursday 19th January 2017:

Eljanov- Aronian, Karjakin- Adhiban, So-Harikrishna, Wojtaszek- Van Wely, Andreikin- Rapport, Wei Yi- Giri, Nepomniachtchi-Carlsen