Gashimov R4: Out-Carlsened

The Vugar Gashimov Memorial, is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from the 20th to 30th of April, in memory of the great Vugar Gashimov, who passed away on the 10th of January 2014. The tournament is divided into two groups. The A Group features six players: World Champion Magnus Carlsen (2881), Fabiano Caruana (2783), Sergey Karjakin (2772), Hikaru Nakamura (2772), and the two Azeri players Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2760) and Teimour Radjabov (2713). The B group consists of ten players, the top five seeds from various countries and the bottom five are all from Azerbaijan.

Round Four

Daniel King shows the game Caruana vs Carlsen

Proper knight placement before the game is important. Three main styles exist: knights facing each other, knights looking forward and knights facing diagonally towards the center, the last one favored by Russians.

Having the knights facing way from each
other is considered bad luck by many grandmasters...

Karjakin, Sergey ½-½ Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
A short but thrilling encounter. A prepared variation in the Caro-Kann led to a wild position where both sides had to exert their best tactical abilities:

Sergey Karjakin and Teimour Radjabov have four draws each

Shakhriyar is at the bottom of the standings, but he has played three blacks so far

Radjabov, Teimour ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
Nakamura again played a solid Slav, but used a different variation than he did against Carlsen in round two. Radjabov got some advantage, as his pawn structure was superior in the resulting endgame. However the position was very hard to breach, and eventually Nakamura traded off into a drawn rook endgame, despite being down a pawn.

Teimour held a slight edge the entire game, but nothing more

Passive and long defense gave Nakamura a draw; not his usual style

Caruana, Fabiano 1-0 Carlsen, Magnus

(The term out-Carlsened originally coined by GM Emil Sutovsky)
Another Berlin, but not another draw. Caruana slowly but surely outplayed the World Champion, suffocating him with every move. A big mistake by Carlsen gave Caruana a pawn, which he proceeded to convert with immaculate precision:

Giving the World Champion a taste of his own medicine: Fabiano Caruana

Magnus tried every trick, but Fabiano fell for none of them.
This is Carlsen's first Classical Time Control loss since he became World Champion!

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Standings

Images from the official web site

Video of round four

Schedule and results

Live commentary on Playchess

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: Group A 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.