The Week in Chess

Arkadij Naiditsch has a good record against David Baramidze and played aggressively and riskily against him with black. A sharp struggle saw Baramidze give up material to open up his opponent's king and seemed to have good compensation but giving up a piece with 23.Ng6 was too much and he had to resign. This left Naiditsch in the lead on 3/4 alone at the end of the round.

Magnus Carlsen came for a battle today against Viswanathan Anand when he played the Stonewall Dutch. Carlsen's position was a little bit worse out of the opening perhaps but the game was very tense. Carlsen wasn't at all sure about his 13...a3 when he played it and also thought that about his 18...h5. 16...Nxd7 from Anand was also a small surprise. 24.e4 was logical and 25...Bb2 looked very risky and Carlsen prepared to grab a pawn on a2 in return for which Anand would destroy Carlsen's Kingside. Carlsen was perhaps a little better after 29...Ng4 and the pressure was well and truely on Anand. On move 32 Anand had to find 32.Re6 (only move) when the game would have continued. Instead after not very long (he had 10 minutes plus increment remaining) he played 32.Rd7 giving up a rook with the idea of 33.f6 but this idea just didn't work and Carlsen gave up his queen, took Anand's other rook after which he was just winning. A rather sudden finish. I've put some of Carlsen's comments in the PGN file.

The other two games were drawn. Aronian had to be careful against Etienne Bacrot as black but as it was played the game simplified to a draw. Fabiano Caruana had a very promising advantage against Michael Adams and even an extra pawn but the position remained difficult and after 32.Bc4 (heavily criticised by Caruana himself) Adams drew quite comfortable.

Scores Naiditsch 3/4, Carlsen, Caruana 2.5, Adams, Bacrot 2, Anand, Aronian 1.5, Baramidze 1.

Round 5 Saturday 2pm GMT: Aronian-Anand, Adams-Bacrot, Naiditsch-Caruana, Carlsen-Baramidze.