Tal Memorial Rd4 – The one that got away

Sixth Tal Memorial in Moscow This event is a ten-player round robin event, is taking place from November 16th to 25th in Moscow, Russia. Time control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

Results

Round four

Carlsen-Karjakin: In a game that was incredibly positional, Carlsen slowly outplayed Karjakin. Although it looked very dangerous for the Russian, truth was that he was always in an okay situation. The endgame was visually more dangerous than it really was, and with some good technique he was able to secure the draw. It is hard to say exactly where Magnus went wrong, or if he did, as I am unable to pinpoint a position in which he could have greatly improved on his play.

Sergey Karjakin in the middlegame against his fellow prodigy Magnus Carlsen

Magnus working Sergey in the endgame

Peter Svidler glances over at his friend Vladimir Kramnik playing Vassily Ivanchuk

Vassily Ivanchuk glances up at his opponent Vladimir Kramnik in their game

Kramnik-Ivanchuk: This game saw a viciously aggressive Kramnik try to punish Ivanchuk for his lack of development. Although this meant that Ivanchuk would have a passed pawn on c3 for many, many moves! The gamble payed off, and Kramnik emerged with a significant advantage from the opening. A combination of control over the open files and control over key squares meant that Black was reduced to absolute passivity. However, just when it all looked hopeless, Ivanchuk struck back by sacrificing an exchange to create some serious practical problems. Eventually the game withered into an endgame where Kramnik was an exchange for a pawn ahead, but it was insufficient as his structure was bad and the pawn count very reduced.

Anand kibitzing (left) while Aronian (middle) thinks

Aronian-Anand: This game saw the current World Champion suffer for another draw. Although White's opening looked rather meek, it clearly contained more poison than it let show. Anand quickly saw himself down a pawn from the opening, although for it he had obtained a strong blockade and immense pressure against the isolated, but extra, c-pawn. At one point Anand decides it's time to transpose into an endgame, which he must have been very confident about drawing. To us mere mortals it seemed that Aronian had a lot of winning chances, but again it is hard to say where he could have finished of the Indian Super-GM.

Vishy Anand and Levon Aronian in the press conference after the game (with the
position after move 43 on the board, and Fritz showing its planned continuation)

Addendum: Originally we had written "Fritz showing it's planned continuation" but corrected our hideous mistake after receiving the following message from "André Philidor of Lyons, FR." who wrote:

It is depressing to note what errors can be committed by an overworked journalist, who will naturally be taken to the town square and horsewhipped. And ChessBase will of course bear the cost of getting "André", who reads our publications so meticulously, a life. It is something he desperately needs.

Peter Svidler in the middlegame against WCh Challenger Boris Gelfand

Svidler-Gelfand: Probably the only actually dull game of the day. A quick liquidation of the queen-side resulted in a game where Gelfand had some minor pressure, but further piece liquidation boiled the game down into a draw, a direction where it was obviously heading from the start.

All games from round four – select from the dropdown menu on the right above the JavaScript board. Note that the attached PGN file contains the time taken for each move (visible in ChessBase or Fritz).

Nepomniachtchi-Nakamura

Magnus Carlsen watching the tense blitz phase of Nepomniachtchi-Nakamura

One of the most dramatic games of round four, annotated below by GM Ramírez

Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura in the press conference after the game

You can relive the entire round, or follow the next, in high definition in this extraordinary broadcast page provided by the Russian Chess Federation. All the pictures above are screen grabs from this video.

Standings after four rounds

Remaining Playchess commentator schedule

Schedule and Results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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