Baden Baden R4: Naiditsch bounces straight back

Baden-Baden GRENKE Chess Classic

Round four: Naiditsch bounces straight back

Daniel Fridman was mildly sceptical about Anand’s claim in the post-game press conference that he’d played the novelty 13…e5 after five minutes’ thought at the board. That was a deviation from a game from the recent Tashkent Grand Prix where Peter Leko played the logical 13…a4 against Alexander Morozevich only to find himself swept off the board by a ferocious kingside attack.

Here Anand (above during the game) smothered his opponent’s play to force what he described as a “very comfortable ending”. Although the ending is Fridman’s forte time trouble and minor inaccuracies led to a position where both players acknowledged he was lost.

German no. one Arkadij Naiditsch has gone hell-for-leather in all his games, with unpredictable but always entertaining results. Today’s opponent Georg Meier was finally undone by his terrible handling of the clock – at one stage he had 51 seconds for 13 moves – although Naiditsch also failed to play the smoothest game of his life.

It all started with historical overtones. In 1925 Baden-Baden (photo above) was the venue for one of the greatest tournament triumphs of the fourth World Champion, Alexander Alekhine, who scored 12 wins, 8 draws and no losses against a world-class field. Three years earlier in Vienna he won a fine game against Hans Kmoch by following the line Meier played today right up until move ten.

The last game to finish was surely the best game of the round in terms of quality. Fabiano Caruana was back at his imperious best when it came to preparation.

That leaves Caruana in the outright lead on 3/4, while Adams has mixed emotions. He’s played some of the most enterprising chess in Baden-Baden, but has only three draws and a loss to his name. As he jokingly summed it up in the press room: "A slight lack of points has been the problem. Not much has been going my way." Full standings after four rounds:

The key showdown in Monday’s round five looks set to be Anand-Naiditsch.

Report: Colin McGourty Photos: Georgios Souleidis

Postgame analysis Naiditsch-Meier

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.