Corus, Wijk aan Zee 2007. Round 4 16th January 2007.
Radjabov defeated Tiviakov to retain his lead alone in round 4. Photo © http://www.chessvibes.com
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Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (NED), 13-28 i 2007 cat. XIX (2718)
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
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1. Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2729 * . . . . . . = . . 1 . 1 1 3.5 3021
2. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2783 . * . . . . . = . = . . 1 1 3.0 2873
3. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2744 . . * = = . . . 1 = . . . . 2.5 2812
4. Navara, David g CZE 2719 . . = * . = = . . . . 1 . . 2.5 2827
5. Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2779 . . = . * . . . = 1 . = . . 2.5 2796
6. Svidler, Peter g RUS 2728 . . . = . * . . = . 1 . . = 2.5 2801
7. Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2766 . . . = . . * = . . = . . 1 2.5 2789
8. Karjakin, Sergey g UKR 2678 = = . . . . = * . . . . = . 2.0 2740
9. Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2723 . . 0 . = = . . * . . 1 . . 2.0 2735
10. Motylev, Alexander g RUS 2647 . = = . 0 . . . . * . . = . 1.5 2660
11. Tiviakov, Sergei g NED 2667 0 . . . . 0 = . . . * = . . 1.0 2535
12. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2690 . . . 0 = . . . 0 . = * . . 1.0 2529
13. Van Wely, Loek g NED 2683 0 0 . . . . . = . = . . * . 1.0 2516
14. Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2715 0 0 . . . = 0 . . . . . . * 0.5 2429
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Round 4 (January 16, 2007)
Radjabov, Teimour - Tiviakov, Sergei 1-0 75 B35 Sicilian Defence
Topalov, Veselin - Shirov, Alexei 1-0 41 D89 Gruenfeld Alekhine
Svidler, Peter - Ponomariov, Ruslan 1/2 30 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Kramnik, Vladimir - Navara, David 1/2 63 A34 English Symmetrical
Motylev, Alexander - Aronian, Levon 1/2 22 C87 Ruy Lopez
Carlsen, Magnus - Anand, Viswanathan 1/2 20 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Van Wely, Loek - Karjakin, Sergey 1/2 37 E20 Nimzo Indian Mark Crowther Comments
This was the final round before the first rest day. Magnus Carlsen got his second half point in the first game to finish when he played very solidly against Viswanathan Anand and accepted a draw offer on move 20. A chance perhaps for Magnus to regroup after a disappointing start.
Not far behind were Alexander Motylev and Levon Aronian who saw no reason to avoid a repetition of position drawing on move 22.
Topalov - Shirov (4). 38...Qe7 would restore a position similar to that which has been on the board for a while. Shirov played 38...Qd4? which concedes ground. 39.Kh2 Nd8? (conceding more but the position probably had already gone) 40.Qd6! Ne6 41. Be3 1-0
The early action occurred in the game between Veselin Topalov and Alexei Shirov. Both bashed out 25 moves of theory in the Exchange Gruenfeld before Shirov deviated from Del Rio Angelis - Konguvel Badalona 2006. Topalov carried on playing quickly and it was clear that in spite of being the exchange down he was the only one with winning chances. 35...Re8 didn't look the best but it was clear that Shirov still had some drawing chances. But after being under pressure for so long and in fact coming close to equalising Shirov blundered decisively on move 38 and had to resign a couple of moves later just after time control.
Peter Svidler played what looked like a not particuarly special novelty 11.h3 against Ruslan Ponomariov's Najdorf Sicilian. Black obtained a tiny edge but the game was agreed drawn on move 30.
Van Wely - Karjakin. White's extra pawn has little significance but black hasn't got much either. Hence 32... Rxf2 33. Kxf2 Qh2+ 34. Kf3 Qxg3+ 35. Ke2 Qg2+ 36. Ke1 Qg1+ 37. Ke2 1/2-1/2
Loek van Wely faced Sergey Karjakin. They discussed a Nimzo-Indian g3 variation and van Wely got the slightly better of it but it was never enough and Karjakin sacrificed a rook for perpetual check.
Vladimir Kramnik obtained the kind of positional edge he loves against David Navara. Kramnik eventually trapped black's knight on c1 which could only be saved by Navara tieing up his rook aswell. Even though Kramnik won a pawn it didn't look like much, but he did find a way to continue and take the game into a tricky rook and pawn ending but it was insufficient to win.
Leader Teimour Radjabov faced Sergey Tiviakov and the first minor surprise was that Tiviakov deviated from his normal Scandinavian Defence, instead he played an accelerated Dragon. There was not much in it in the middle game but by first time control Radjabov was pressing heavily for the win trying to exploit an extremely bad bishop and he eventually broke through to win on move 75 and retain his lead alone half a point clear of Veselin Topalov.