The Week in Chess

The fourth round of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee saw all the games finish peacefully. That's not to say they should have, there were a number of games that could have finished decisively. This was the final round before the first rest day on Wednesday. There remains a five way tie at the top between Harikrishna, Carlsen, Giri, Caruana, Grandelius all on 2.5pts.

Magnus Carlsen was fairly philosophical about his draws in the last three rounds, he was a bit frustrated that he didn't manage to make his opponents have to work harder for their draws, whilst he wasn't winning any of them, and his opponents have defended well, he thought that his own errors had brought the games to an end early. Today it looked like Carlsen would get to push for a long time but after 48...Rd2 (48...Kg5 keeps things going) the game quickly ended with everything being traded off.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs David Anton was a long Marshall Ruy Lopez where MVL seemed to be the one setting the problems but he never got a clear winning chance. Jan-Krzysztof Duda against Giri was a long theoretical Gruenfeld struggle where Giri finished a pawn down in a Rook and Pawn endgame that wasn't anything more than a draw.

Nils Grandelius built up a winning position as black against Andrey Esipenko but admitted afterward "In the time trouble I played very, very poorly." 40.Rxb2 was the final missed chance which the computer evaluates as a decisive advantage for Grandelius.

Pentala Harikrishna got in a bit of a tangle on the white side of a Ruy Lopez against Fabiano Caruana, his novelty 19.Bc2 wasn't a good move and he had to struggle for a while. Caruana's 35...Qd4?! wasn't great (35...Rd6 was much better) as it allowed a liquidating sacrifice that drew the game quickly. Alexander Donchenko and Radoslaw Wojtaszek drew a fascinating Sicilian Najdorf whose final phase in the bishop and pawn endgame was exceedingly tricky and instructive. First Donchenko was in danger of losing a pawn up, then Wojtaszek had to spot that a tempting winning line was in fact losing, both players proved up to the task. Aryan Tari agreed that it wasn't ideal taking Alireza Firouzja in a wild tactical position and once Firouzja broke through it looked like he would win. Then things went completely out of control 27....Be5? from Firouzja was losing after 28. Kh1 according to the computer. Then Tari's 28.Rxc5? was also bad - it's winning for Firouzja again, 29...Ne2? was a final mistake (29...Be2 wins) and the position was equal again and the players agreed a draw a move later.

Round 4 Standings: 1st-5th Harikrishna, Carlsen, Giri, Caruana, Grandelius 2.5pts; 6th-10th Vachier-Lagrave, Van Foreest, Esipenko, Firouzja, Wojtaszek 2pts 11th-13th Duda, Anton Guijarro, Tari 1.5pt 14th Donchenko 1pts.

Wednesday 20th Jan Rest Day

Thursday 21st Jan 1pm GMT: Carlsen-Donchenko, Firouzja-Van Foreest, Anton-Tari, Giri-Harikrishna, Caruana-Esipenko, Grandelius-MVL, Wojtaszek-Duda.