Alekhine R04: Aronian joins the leaders

The Alekhine Memorial is taking place from April 20th to May 1st 2013. The first part of the event takes place in Paris, France, (April 21-26, rounds one to five), the second in Saint Petersburg, Russia, (April, 26-May 1, rounds six to nine). The super tournament is dedicated to a great Russian chess player Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine, a citizen of Russia and France, and is held at the initiative and with the support of Russian businessmen Gennady Timchenko and Andrey Filatov. Ten grandmasters from seven countries are playing in the Memorial starts with with five rounds in the Louvre Museum in Paris and ends with four rounds in Saint Michael’s Castle in Saint-Petersburg.

Round four report

One of the leaders, Adams, ready to defend his black pieces against Fressinet

Today's round featured a few drawn endgames, two important blunders and many regrets for some players.

"You considered playing what?!" - Vladimir Kramnik and Ding Liren in the postmortem

Ding Liren-Kramnik, Vladimir 1/2-1/2
Kramnik repeats the variation that cost him a full point against Aronian earlier in the tournament. This time Ding Liren was unable to put any real pressure on the Russian and they agreed to a share the point after simplifying to a lifeless draw.

Vitiugov, Nikita - Gelfand, Boris 1/2-1/2
This line of the English has been giving Black some problems in the past few years. The idea of retaking with 8.bxc3 is surprisingly new, as most of the time White has focused their efforts on the variations starting with 8.Qb3. Gelfand seemed to mishandle the position and it was clear after the opening that the pair of bishops more than compensated Vitiugov's weak, but mobile, central hanging pawns. White's initiative looked promising, but at some point Vitiugov let his opponent off the hook and, despite temporarily being up two pawns, eventually had to be happy with a draw.

The most important preparation for a game: getting the tea and water ready!

Vachier Lagraeve, Maxim-Anand, Vishy 1/2-1/2
Anand's Semi-Slav continues to be rock solid. Vachier pushed as hard as he could in a position where his advantage was best measured with a nanoscope, and they agreed to a draw when Vachier had an extra pawn in a hopelessly drawn rook endgame, since all of the pawns were on the same side.

Aronian, Levon - Svidler, Peter 1-0
Svidler returns to his trusted Gruenfeld defense, but Aronian (above) was well prepared. White obtained a very slight but stable advantage out of the opening, as the pressure that he got against Black's e5 and f5 pawns wasn't easy to deal with. Of course his own position had difficulties, such as Black's potential activity all over the board, but Aronian kept his cool and forced an endgame in which he had some slight pressure against Black's pawns. Svidler's position looked defensible until he blundered with the move 31... b5? probably missing White's maneuver with 33. Nd2-b3 in case of 32... b4.

Fressinet, Laurent - Adams, Michael 1/2-1/2
After arguably missing an opportunity to play for a win at the end of his game yesterday against Ding Liren, Fressinet (above, sipping tea) now definitely blundered away his win against Adams. White played a powerful game utilizing the advantage of the pair of bishops to maximum effect. Black's position slowly crumbled until he had to start shedding pawns. On move 39 the Frenchman could have given the coup de grace with Bxf6! but even after missing this he had good winning chances. Adams was resourceful in the defense and took full advantage of Fressinet's slips, eventually salvaging an important half a point.

Standings

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Alekhine Memorial 2013 – Schedule, pairings and results

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