Qatar 2015 Rd4: Five stars and one dark horse

Qatar Masters 2015

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While the sheer strength of the Qatar Open is staggering in many ways, it is the sheer diversity of players and player strength that has helped to make it such a fun event to follow. Naturally, the foremost example of this is the presence of Magnus Carlsen, the world no. 1, facing players he would normally only face in a simul or exhibition event at best. It also leads to dream-come-true opportunities for those fortunate enough to play opposite him.

The wet dream of each player is of course to read the next day “Magnus Carlsen loses in incredible upset!” The harsh reality is usually closer to what the talented 17-year-old Jan-Krzysztof Duda experienced, being on the receiving end of a master class in chess.

It is not often that one had the privilege of playing the World Champion face-to-face

Jan-Krzysztof Duda - Magnus Carlsen (annotations by IM Sagar Shah)

Magnus Carlsen has been growing with each round, and today was his best game so far

One might wonder what a player such as Carlsen gets out of this, other than an undoubtedly hefty appearance fee, and this game may answer that question. How often does one see a player such as Magnus play the black side of a notoriously sharp opening such as the Najdorf? Here he may be forced into oddball openings by his opponents, such as Yuffa with 1.e4 c5 2.b3, but it also allows him leeway to experiment outside his comfort zone without needing to fear the uber-preparation (and expertise) of Top Ten specialists.

On board one were Anish Giri and Li Chao

The leaders entering the round were Anish Giri and Li Chao, and though anything could happen, the game never really got out of hand and a draw was the logical result. This also meant that several other players could now rejoin them at 3.5/4. The World Champion was one of course, but he was not the only one. Wesley So and Maxim Matlakov also added their hats to the circle, defeating Akopian and Kosteniuk respectively, to complete the group.

Vladimir Akopian found himself in a dead lost opposite colored bishop ending that Wesley So
made no mistakes in. With this, the young American is tied for he lead and also within five Elo
of his rival compatriots Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana.

Leading the group of 19 players on 3.0/4 is the complete unknown Chinese player Xu Yinglun, rated 2470 FIDE, but untitled. He made waves as one of the upsets in round one when he defeated Nikita Vitiugov (2724 FIDE), but never really left the sun as he drew Sjugirov and Vidit, both over 2640, and now in round four gunned down Indian GM Sethuraman, when the latter missed a tactic that he never recovered from.

After watching Wei Yi sacrifice a knight right in front of his king, Indian IM Vignish had to
have feared the worst, but his stars all lined up today, and he left the board the victor.

It hasn’t been all roses for the Chinese though, with Wei Yi suffering from rather extreme irregularity in his games. Today he lost to the young Indian IM Vignesh, but contrary to round one, the Chinese prodigy went from winning, to dead lost, to dead winning, to much better to dead lost as he blundered horribly on move 67. Just one of those days where one regrets ever having gotten out of bed.

In that mix of players at 3.0/4 is Vladimir Kramnik who played a fascinating game against
American GM Daniel Naroditsky, who fought very well, but in the end failed to keep pace.

Vladimir Kramink - Daniel Naroditsky

The ladies had reason to cheer as well, as 15-year-old WGM Zhansaya Abdumalik scored again in round four with an impressive win over German IM Rasmus Svane (2529 FIDE). It should be noted that even in round three, when she lost to Indian GM Ganguly, she had started with a spectacular and powerful bishop sac, but had failed to find the best continuation. All the same, her fearlessness, and instincts cannot be faulted.

For the youth, 12-year-old Iranian FM Alireza Firouzja (left) continues his superb run, drawing
comfortably against Indian GM Harika Dronavalli, as he stands at 2.0/4 against a 2569 average.
In th photo above, he is together with his 14-year-old compatriot FM Aryan Gholami.

His colleague in years, 11-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov fared less well, as he failed to find the best continuation in a difficult rook endgame against Bartel Mateusz, against whom he might have draw, but he did get some slight moral compensation as that night he got to play alongside Magnus Carlsen in football.

A late night game of football after the round is over?

You can count on Magnus! And not just him needless to say...

The World Champion was extremely sporting passing the ball regularly to the 11-year-old
Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who would always promptly send it right back. It was very cute.

One of the movie extras from Mad Max: Ruslan Ponomariov

Hou Yifan has played to her strength, and stands at 3.0/4 with a 2691 performance

ChessBase author Alejandro Ramirez alongside Hou Yifan

Interview with Hou Yifan by IM Sagar Shah

Indian GM Ganguly with Mahdi Abdul Rahman, the arbiter

Replay games of round four (with times per move)

Pairings/Results of Round 4 on 2015/12/23 at 15:00

Schedule for Playchess Commentary

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