Round 4 February 21, 2003
Four players lead on 3/4 after a fourth round shake-out in the Category XV Stormot Hroksins tournament in Reykjavik. The three top seeds - Adams, Shirov and Ivan Sokolov - and the current European Champion Bartek Macieja all won with White leaving them in joint first place.
The one casualty of the day among the overnight leaders was two times World Championship finalist Viktor Korchnoi who lost on time while still completing his 40th move which blundered a piece. Macieja himself had only 2 seconds left after his 40th move and without the blunder the position might have remained unclear. This was their third recent encounter (the previous games were in Curacao and at the Bled Olympiad). All games were decisive and Macieja was visibly pleased to go one game up against Korchnoi.
Mickey Adams and Ivan Sokolov both notched up a second successive win of the tournament.
According to Mickey, Stefan Kristjansson´s position was fine at around 20 moves after the Icelandic IM had played a rare 5...Bf8 in the opening, a French Defence. But Stefan´s fondness for time trouble against stronger players soon took over. A few moves later this was serious and Adams eventually won material to decide the game.
After being the only first round winner Helgi Ass Gretarsson has now lost his last three games.
In Shirov-Gretarsson´s Slav the Latvian played 5.Nh4 before his usual Nc3. This didn´t work so well for Shirov who eventually managed to complicate the position. "I had some initiative and then Helgi was short of time."
In the Queen´s Gambit declined of Sokolov-McShane, Luke came under immediate pressure from Ivan´s attack. He looked to have neutralised this with good defence until 27...Rae8? (instead of 27...Nd7 which appeared to be necessary) lost material. Luke gamely played on with the rook pair for queen and knight before Sokolov found a clever tactic to sacrifice his knight for the win.
In Stefansson-Bacrot, the 20-year old French champion played his second Petroff of the tournament. The players castled on opposite sides and then shook hands just as things appeared to be hotting up.
With play commencing at 17.00 players have settled in to a tournament rhythm. Shirov is swimming daily in one of the city´s many municipal geothermal pools, a way of life here in Reykjavik. At home he likes to swim in the Latvian lakes. Although now a Spanish citizen and Spain´s top-ranked player, Shirov returned to live in Riga a few years ago.
Meanwhile Ivan Sokolov takes to the gym in the mornings to work off any excesses of the previous evening.
Etienne Bacrot and Luke McShane prefer to relax in the evenings by playing backgammon together at the Hrokurinn Club´s social headquarters, the Grand Rokk pub in downtown Reykjavik.
For the benefit of spectators, tomorrow´s round starts earlier, at 14.00, and will be followed by the rest day on Sunday.