The Week in Chess

Four players go through to the fifth round of the FIDE World Cup in Tromso and four pairings go to play-offs on Thursday after game two of the fourth round. The shock of the day was the elimination of Hikaru Nakamura by Ukrainian Anton Korobov.

Korobov who took a five year break from the game and didn't seem that keen on the professional travelling life eliminated Nakamura who took a lot of risks with black. The key moment seems to have been after 18.Ne5 when Korobov wasn't sure he wasn't even worse. 18...Nxe5! seems at least equal for black. Nakamura also picked this moment saying on twitter that if he'd taken the knight off the game would likely have been drawn. A Ukrainian journalist asked why Korobov doesn't play for the national team, it seems he and the selectors don't see eye to eye and judging by the interview he's quite an individualist. That said he took the time to thank his three seconds, although as is the fashion, he didn't name them.

Gata Kamsky has often said recently he avoids tactics when he can due to his age. However he got through against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in two ultra-sharp games and didn't have any reason to be ashamed. Kamsky seemed to have been caught cold in the opening by 5.h4 and after 5...dxc4 6.e4 0-0 (castling into it, Kamsky claimed he remembered that he was supposed to castle here as it wasn't dangerous according to what Emil Sutovsky said to him before the game but my guess in this precise position he was told nothing of the sort) and after 7.h5 Kamsky was already deeply unhappy. Most probably 15.Rc1 gave Kamsky new hope 15.Nxc3 followed by a quick e5-e6 worried Kamsky a lot. After that in spite of being terribly short of time Kamsky's pieces activated and through amazing (although given his activity perhaps not surprising) tactics Kamsky secured the draw he needed.

"I shouldn't play like this. I'm old person I should be playing normal solid chess." - Kamsky

Vladimir Kramnik got the draw with white against Vassily Ivanchuk he needed to go though. He was probably better throughout but had opportunities to go wrong. Fabiano Caruana had much too much for surprise package Julio Granda Zuniga and completely outplayed him for a 2-0 win and progress.

Tomashevsky-Morozevich (Tomashevsky looked to be much better at one stage), Gelfand vs Vachier-Lagrave (who felt he had gone wrong but it didn't seem he was ever that much worse and indeed maybe better later), Karjakin-Andreikin and Svidler-Le Quang Liem (both felt white should be better but there was never anything very clear) all drew both their games and go to play-offs on Thursday.