Bilbao, Rd. 4: Another impressive win by Carlsen

by Klaus Besenthal
7/16/2016 – With each round of the "Masters" in Bilbao World Champion Magnus Carlsen seems to get better. After his first round loss against Hikaru Nakamura he won three games in a row - in round four he defeated Wesley So in just 26 moves after a seemingly innocuous opening. It was the only decisive game of the round. Hikaru Nakamura drew against Anish Giri and Wei Yi drew against Sergey Karjakin. Carlsen now leads with 9.0/12.

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Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin explain their game
to Spanish chess journalist Leontxo Garcia and the public.

Fully focused: Magnus Carlsen - here during his third round game against Sergey Karjakin

Carlsen's concentration yielded results. He defeated Wesley So in just 26 moves and always seemed to be one step ahead of his opponent.

 

Results of round 4

Board Title Name ELO Res. Title Name ELO
1 GM Magnus Carlsen 2851 3-0 GM Wesley So 2775
2 GM Hikaru Nakamura 2787 1 - 1 GM Anish Giri 2790
3 GM Wei Yi 2694 1 - 1 GM Sergey Karjakin 2779

Games of rounds 1 to 4

 

Standings after four rounds

In Bilbao the three-point rule applies.

Schedule

Round Day Time
Opening ceremony 12.July 16:00
1. round 13.July 16:00
2. round 14.July 16:00
3. round 15.July 16:00
4. round 16.July 16:00
5. round 17.July 16:00
Free day 18.July  
6. round 19.July 16:00
7. round 20.July 16:00
8. round 21.July 16:00
9. round 22.July 16:00
10. round 23.July 15:00
Closing ceremony... 23.July Around 20:00
(at the end of the games)

Photos: Tournament page...

Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.

Discuss

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TallVenusian TallVenusian 7/18/2016 08:05
If 16...O-O then 17.Bh6! is rather nasty.
Aighearach Aighearach 7/18/2016 01:35
Simple; he didn't castle because Carlsen hypnotized him with one of these lines that looks totally normal, unambitious, slowly developing, not yet dangerous, and in two moves, one of which forced a response, the nature of the position clarified and was in fact much, much sharper than it had appeared.

Not only does Carlsen play better moves than his contemporaries, he sneaks up with them. And it might not be sharp; the better move might be very slow. It is like his opponents know how dangerous their opponent is, but they don't know if he's Capablanca or Tal! Very, very difficult position.

As a club-level player, this has happened to me many times: "Why didn't you castle?" "Well I would have if I had seen that attack developing... I thought it would take a couple more moves to force me to respond."
passiontolearn passiontolearn 7/17/2016 02:44
I was wondering the same thing... why didn't Wesley castle?
Maybe he got the illusion that the position is really closed because of White's pawns on d3 and e4?
nokia x nokia x 7/17/2016 12:40
why wesley late to 0-0 this game with carlsen??
oputu oputu 7/17/2016 11:54
Draw master Giri has nothing to fear. He always has a drawing line up his sleeve
BroncoBuster BroncoBuster 7/17/2016 11:52
These Reports on Bilbao contain just minimum Information and are not worth reading (compared to others chess News sites) you could as well stop covering this event as well...pls improve
Aighearach Aighearach 7/17/2016 11:49
Carlsen has been a part of all the decisive games so far. All games without Carlsen have been draws, and all games with Carlsen have had a victor. I don't mind that he's 60 points stronger than everybody else; predictable wins are a lot more exciting than predictable draws!
sranj sranj 7/17/2016 08:44
Giri must be shivering in his pants..
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