Stavanger: Five draws in round four

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Magnus Carlsen (Photo: Gegga)

The fourth round was the last round before the first rest day. And Chinese Grandmaster Li Chao was the one who had to play against the World Champion - with White. Li Chao answered Carlsen's Queen's Gambit Slav with the exchange variation - not a system to play for a win at all costs. After 14 moves the position was almost symmetrical - the only difference was that Li Chao had played his queen's rook to the c-file whereas Carlsen had decided to move his king's rook to the c-file. However, the structure did not offer much play and gradually one piece after the other was exchanged which finally led to a rook ending in which Carlsen forced a repetition of moves and a draw.

Anish Giri and Levon Aronian discussed a well-known and often played lined of the Queen's Gambit with Bf4, in which White tries to squeeze Black's position with c5. With this opening the players rekindled a discussion which they had begun at the Candidates Tournament in Moscow. However, with 14... Qb7 deviated from the previous game - apparently he was not too keen to know what Giri had prepared.

Black wound up in a slightly cramped position (which is not unusual in this line) but gradually managed to free himself. White was settled with an isolated pawn on d4 but as this was no serious disadvantage the game finally ended in a draw.

Anish Giri (Photo Gegga)

Pavel Eljanov and Veselin Topalov played a line of the Tartakower-Variation of the Queen's Gambit which might trigger memories to the 6th game of the legendary Fischer-Spassky match in Reykjavik 1972. But the Eljanov-Topalov took a different course than its predecessor. One piece after the other vanished from the board and the game soon petered out to a draw.

The two pursuers of Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Vladimir Kramnik, had the chance to catch with the World Champion - if they won and Carlsen drew. Unfortunately they played against each other which reduced the chances that they might catch up to Carlsen. 

The first topic of the game was - yes, indeed, the Berlin Defense, or, to be more precise, the attempt to play the Berlin Defense. But the French Grandmaster preferred 4.d3, which led to the usual patterns. Kramnik brought his bishop to c5 and then followed ideas which had been seen in a couple of previous, in which Black copied White's usual strategy in the Spanish: Black played the bishop to c7 and the knight to g6. This led to a complicated, rich game, in which both sides were looking for chances. But after a long game the point was split.

The game between Nils Grandelius and Pentala Harikrishna led to positions which you rarely see in top tournaments. The Indian Grandmaster opted for the Rubinstein-Variation in the French and after 6.Bxf6 recaptured with ...gxf6. Later both kings castled queenside. But before Black did he had lost the pawn on h7 - though he got very active piece play in return. Black's pressure became so great that White was forced to give his queen for rook and minor piece - but then Black gradually gave his advantage away and the game ended in a draw.

Results of round 4

Games of rounds 1 to 4

Standings after four rounds

Schedule and results of Norway Chess 2016

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