Zurich 04: Musical Inspiration!

The «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014» will be the first encounter between the newly crowned World Champion, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, and the former title holder, India’s Viswanathan Anand after their recent match in Chennai. From Wednesday, 29 January to Tuesday, 4 February 2014, they will compete in the 3rd Zurich Chess Challenge along with four other great chess stars: Levon Aronian (Armenia), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Fabiano Caruana (Italy) and Boris Gelfand (Israel).

Charles Aznavour

The guest of honor today in Zurich was the legendary Shahnour Varinag Aznavourian, better known by his stage name Charles Aznavour. French and Armenian singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world. Aznavour is known for his unique tenor voice: clear and ringing in its upper reaches, with gravelly and profound low notes.

Levon Aronian was certainly happy to meet one of his idols

Charles Aznavour has been described as "France's Frank Sinatra"

Sofia Leko, Peter Leko's wife, wasted no time in getting an autograph

This guy is 89?! no way!

Charles Aznavour delivering his signature song "She" in his prime...

...and still quite stunning in his eighties

He has appeared in more than sixty movies, composed about a thousand songs (including at least 150 in English, 100 in Italian, 70 in Spanish, and 50 in German, and sold well over 100 million records. In 1998, Aznavour was named Entertainer of the Century by CNN and users of Time Online from around the globe. He was recognized as the century's outstanding performer, with nearly 18% of the total vote, edging out Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. He has sung for presidents, popes and royalty, as well as at humanitarian events, and is the founder of the charitable organization Aznavour for Armenia along with his long-time friend impresario Levon Sayan. In 2009, he was appointed ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland, as well as Armenia's permanent delegate to the United Nations at Geneva. He started his new Aznavour en Toute Intimité tour in 2011.

Round Four

Nakamura fell prey to excellent play from Aronian

Aronian, pictured with Oleg and Natasha Skvortsov, was certainly inspired today

Aronian's game today was very clean. He played a good opening, obtained a comfortable advantage and never let the American super star off the hook.

Sofia Leko, Arianne Caoili and Peter Leko. Caoili also expressed her excitement at meeting one of the greatest musical legends alive.

Gelfand keeps having a rough time, first Wijk Aan Zee and now here

The game between Gelfand and Anand was quite interesting. The ex-World Champion provides a great example of transformation of advantages: where you give up something you hold in exchange for a different advantage, of a different nature. Gelfand had chances to equalize nonetheless but he misplayed near time control and Anand took all of his pawns.

With his face expression you wouldn't guess that this picture was taken when Caruana resigned, putting Carlsen at a full 95 points over third in the world - Kramnik

Carlsen played a beautiful game today against Caruana. A timely exchange sacrifice allowed him to obtain a passed pawn on the d-file which was protected by his bishop. This tied down Caruana's queen and rook and never allowed him any activity. Carlsen used his central pawns coupled with his queen to present problems to the enemy king which was stuck in the line of fire, and the pressure was too much for the Italian's position. Carlsen continues with demolishing results in the tournament.

Daniel King shows the highlights of round 4

Replay round four games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Cristian Chirila - Guest Commentator Former World u-16 Champion and currently a grandmaster finishing his studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, Cristian is an ambitious chess player. Find out more about Cristian, including his chess lesson services, biography and games here.

Maria Emelianova - Photographer Maria Emelianova is 26 years old, born in Ekaterinburg, Russia, Women FIDE Master, with a 2113 Elo rating. After finishing school Maria moved to Moscow to study at the university, so chess was forgotten for some time. She worked for about a year with Alexander Roshal in the chess magazine "64". Her carrier as a chess photographer started at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. "It was just a hobby, but somehow became an interesting job," says Maria, who works with a Canon 1DX. "Now I am finishing my studies at two universities in Moscow, and am looking forward to a future in the big world of chess."

Schedule and Pairings

The event is a six player round robin, with a rate of play of 40 moves in 120 minutes, then 20 moves in 60 minutes and the rest of game in 15 minutes, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting after move 61. Special rule: in case of a draw before move 40, an additional rapid game will be played (which does not count for the overall result).

• The blitz will be used to determine the colors
• The classical time control gives two points to wins, one for draws and none for losses
• The rapid time control gives one point to wins, half to draws and none for losses

The winner will be the one who scores the most points between the classical tournament and the rapid.

Schedule of Commentary

Schedule and results

Rapid Schedule

Links Official tournament site All Games in PGN The games will be 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.