The Week in Chess

Leader Ian Nepomniachtchi earned a comfortable draw with black against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Round 4 of the Tata Steel Masters and kept the lead with 3 points. This allowed Anish Giri and Santosh Gujrathi Vidit to move within half a point in a four way tie for second place with Ding Liren and Viswanathan Anand.

Giri looked comfortable straight out of the opening against Richard Rapport's 1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bf4 and after the dubious 21.Nxb6?! tactic was played white was always struggling and by the time they reached move 40 white had to resign. Vidit ground down Jorden Van Foreest in a bishops of opposite colours endgame. There may have been a way to draw this but it was tricky. Ding Liren looked to have a slight pull against Vladimir Fedossev but he couldn't make anything of it. The remaining games were drawn, Magnus Carlsen was again the last to finish trying to make something out of nothing against Vladimir Kramnik. Anand-Radjabov and Duda-Shankland were the other draws.

Round 4 Standings: 1 Nepomniachtchi 3pts 2 Vidit 2½pts 3 Ding 2½pts 4 Anand 2½pts 5 Giri 2½pts 6 Mamedyarov 2pts 7 Carlsen 2pts 8 Shankland 2pts 9 Duda 2pts 10 Radjabov 2pts 11 Fedoseev 1½pts 12 Rapport 1½pts 13 Kramnik 1pt 14 Van Foreest 1pt

Round 5 is in Alkmaar 16th Jan 2019 starting half an hour later at 2pm UK time.

Van Foreest-Carlsen, Fedoseev-Vidit, Shankland-Ding Liren, Radjabov-Duda, Giri-Anand, Nepomniachtchi-Rapport, Kramnik-Mamedyarov,