TWIC is 29. First issue 17th September 1994.
FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2020 (4)
Candidates Round 4 - all the games drawn following the rest day
Mark Crowther - Saturday 21st March 2020
Ian Nepomniachtchi - head slumped at the board after first time control. Caruana ignored him and went to the far side of the stage. Photo © | https://en.candidates-2020.com/main
All the games of the fourth round of the FIDE Candidates in Yekaterinburg on Saturday 21st March were drawn leaving Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wang Hao tied for the lead on 2.5/4.
MVL had the best winning opportunity of the day against Alexander Grischuk. Grischuk again defended the Ruy Lopez Berlin, an opening he knows extremely well, but his 50 minute think over the move 18...Ne7, where he did not even guess his opponents reply (he expect 19.g4 and got 19h4), put him in time pressure for the rest of the game. Later his quick 29...Nxa4? (29....Be6 is forced but he only had 1m:40s left) is a losing move against the best, 30.Re4! With an hour left on his clock MVL only spent 2 minutes on 30.Ba3 and his chance was more or less gone. MVL said afterwards he thought his continuation was very strong at the time but that he was proven wrong.
Fabiano Caruana played 7.Bc4 vs Ian Nepomniachtchi's Gruenfeld, this has been a main line at various times in history but today it came as a small surprise. Nepomniachtchi said that black has to be accurate to equalise but he hadn't looked at the detailed lines recently so he had to rely on general ideas. Caruana was frustrated that he wasn't much better after 30...Kf8 and played 31.Qf3? after which if anyone was worse it was him, even the superior 31.Qd4, whilst dangerous, does not appear to be winning either. Caruana dealt with his difficulties well and after 37.f3! a draw was all but assured.
Wang Hao got nothing against a solid opening from Kirill Alekseenko but with 13...Ra6?! Alekseenko made life difficult for himself. In the end the very solid nature of the position produced a draw. Anish Giri was again well prepared. Against Ding Liren's Catalan he played a somewhat positionally risky idea but with his kingside demonstration 15...h5 he had enough play to hold the draw quite comfortably.
Round 4 Standings: 1st-3rd Nepomniachtchi, MVL, Wang Hao 2.5pts, 4th-5th Caruana, Grischuk 2pts 6th-8th Ding Liren, Alekseenko, Giri 1.5pts.
Round 5 Pairings 22nd March 2020 11am GMT: Giri-Caruana, Grischuk-Ding Liren, Alekseenko-MVL, Nepomniachtchi-Wang Hao.
Round 4 Candidates 21st March 2020
I don't have anything to add today to the summary above and the brief notes to the games.
Ding Liren vs Giri Round 4 Candidates. Photo © https://en.candidates-2020.com/main.
Caruana vs Nepomniachtchi Round 4 Candidates. Photo © https://en.candidates-2020.com/main.
Wang Hao vs Alekseenko Round 4 Candidates. Photo © https://en.candidates-2020.com/main.
MVL vs Grischuk Round 4 Candidates. Photo © https://en.candidates-2020.com/main.
| FIDE Candidates 2020 Yekaterinburg RUS (RUS), 15 iii-5 iv 2020 | cat. XXI (2774) | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||||||||||
| 1. | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | g | RUS | 2774 | * | * | . | . | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | 1 | . | . | . | 2½ | 2865 |
| 2. | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | g | FRA | 2767 | . | . | * | * | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | . | . | ½ | . | 1 | . | 2½ | 2891 |
| 3. | Wang, Hao | g | CHN | 2762 | . | . | . | . | * | * | ½ | . | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | 1 | . | 2½ | 2855 |
| 4. | Grischuk, Alexander | g | RUS | 2777 | ½ | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | * | * | . | . | ½ | . | . | . | . | . | 2 | 2750 |
| 5. | Caruana, Fabiano | g | USA | 2842 | ½ | . | ½ | . | . | . | . | . | * | * | 1 | . | . | . | 0 | . | 2 | 2761 |
| 6. | Alekseenko, Kirill | g | RUS | 2698 | ½ | . | . | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | 0 | . | * | * | . | . | . | . | 1½ | 2701 |
| 7. | Giri, Anish | g | NED | 2763 | 0 | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | * | * | ½ | . | 1½ | 2690 |
| 8. | Ding, Liren | g | CHN | 2805 | . | . | 0 | . | 0 | . | . | . | 1 | . | . | . | ½ | . | * | * | 1½ | 2696 |
| Round 4 (March 21, 2020) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | - Grischuk, Alexander | ½-½ | 53 | C67 | Ruy Lopez Berlin | |
| Wang, Hao | - Alekseenko, Kirill | ½-½ | 41 | D78 | Gruenfeld 3.g3 | |
| Caruana, Fabiano | - Nepomniachtchi, Ian | ½-½ | 55 | D87 | Gruenfeld Botvinnik | |
| Ding, Liren | - Giri, Anish | ½-½ | 42 | E00 | Catalan | |
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