2016 Shamkir Rd4: Caruana storms to 3.5/4

Third Shamkir Tournament in memory of Vugar Gashimov

The Vugar Gashimov Memorial, is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from the May 26 to June 4, 2016, in memory of the great Vugar Gashimov, who passed away on the 10th of January 2014. The tournament features ten world-class players: Fabiano Caruana (2795), Anish Giri (2790), Sergey Karjakin (2779), Pavel Eljanov (2750), Pentala Harikrishna (2763), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2750), Teimour Radjabov (2726), Eltaj Safarli (2664), Hou Yifan (2663) and Rauf Mamedov (2650). The time control is 120/40 moves + 60/20 moves + 15 minutes + 30 seconds/move at 61st move.

All games start at 3 p.m. local time = 1 p.m. in Europe (CEST), one hour earlier in Britain, and 2 p.m. in Moscow. You can find the starting time at your location here. Today's pairings:

Watch it live on Playchess!

Round Four

The Caruana train does not seem to deacelerate, while Giri keeps up the pace by inflicting Harikrishna's second loss in a row. The remaining games were filled with interesting chess, sans the game between Azerbaijanis, as seems to be tradition.

Round four, fight!

Giri, Anish 1-0 Harikrishna, Pentala
Harikrishna trusted his pet defense, but Giri simply tore it apart:

Fabiano might be stealing the show, but Anish is having a great tournament as well

Pentala trying to figure out how to revive his pet line

Eljanov, Pavel ½-½ Karjakin, Sergey
The eternal dilemma: the more a passed pawn pushes, the stronger and weaker it becomes. The pawn on d7 was always a problem for black, unable to capture it but solidly blockaded. On the other hand White's game revolved entirely around his pawn and he was unable to push it. There were a couple of sacrificial ideas that Eljanov might've tried to gain a slight edge, but Karjakin was never in trouble.

Sergey sits at 50% with one win, one loss and two draws

Somehow, somewhat surprisingly, Eljanov managed to sacrifice a piece for three pawns and the resulting liquidation landed them in a dead drawn endgame.

Hou Yifan ½-½ Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
Quite an intersting struggle. Yifan's excellent pawn sacrifice netted her an initiative against Black's weakened king and pawn structure. Black kept holding on in an unpleasant queen endgame, and the threats of perpetuals gave black excellent drawing chances. Had Yifan played like a super computer she might've put real pressure on her opponent, but the maneuvers that Komodo and Stockfish recommend are beyond anything a human can understand. Yifan's human play allowed Shakh to find a drawing variation just as White's c-pawn was about to promote.

Yifan with one of the commentators, legendary GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic

Mamedov, Rauf 0-1 Caruana, Fabiano
Caruana is, simply put, on a roll:

Fabiano's thid victim in a row: Rauf Mamedov

Radjabov, Teimour ½-½ Safarli, Eltaj
The game seemed pretty interesting on move 17. Five moves later all the pieces had disappeared and the dead draw result was clear to everyone.

The pieces kind of all came off again in a Radjabov game

Standings after four rounds

Schedule and results

Live commentary on Playchess

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN (courtesy TWIC) 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.