Aronian catches Carlsen after beating Kamsky in Tata Steel Round 4

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74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2012 (4)

Aronian catches Carlsen after beating Kamsky in Tata Steel Round 4

IM Malcolm Pein - Friday 20th January 2012

IM Malcolm Pein reports on the fourth round of the Tata Steel Chess tournament and looks at Boris Gelfand against Teimour Radjabov.

Levon Aronian eventually beat Gata Kamsky in Round 4. Photo ©

Levon Aronian eventually beat Gata Kamsky in Round 4. Photo © | http://www.tatasteelchess.com

Levon Aronian rejoined Magnus Carlsen in the lead on 3/4 after grinding down Gata Kamsky in 58 moves at the 74th Tata Steel tournament. Aronian was always slightly better and managed to convert an extra pawn, see below. Carlsen was held to a draw by Fabiano Caruana who might have been slightly better in a Berlin Wall endgame but nothing came of it. The world number seven Sergey Karjakin won again and has two losses, two wins and no draws.

Matthew Sadler has 2.5/4 in Group C after a third draw. His position looked promising playing white in a Queen's Gambit Accepted against GM Daan Brandenburg of Holland but a slightly premature attack backfired and he steered the game to an equal ending.

Teimour Radjabov plays the King's Indian dynamically.

B Gelfand - T Radjabov

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.Be3 Ng4 8.Bg5 f6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 Nh6 11.h3 exd4 12.Nxd4 Nc6 13.0-0 Nxd4 14.Qxd4 f5 15.Qd5+ Kh8 16.exf5 Nxf5 17.Bh2 Bd7 18.Bg4 Nd4 19.Bxd7 Qxd7 20.Rad1 Rae8! 21.Nb5

(21.Qxb7 g4 22.hxg4 Qxg4 is good for Black)

21...Nxb5 22.cxb5 g4 23.h4 b6 24.b3 Qf7

(24...Re2 25.a4=)

25.Qb7 Re2 26.Bg3 Be5 27.Rc1 Qf5 28.Qxc7 Bxg3 29.fxg3

Today's puzzle: How did Radjabov equalise from this position? Can he force perpetual check?

Teimour Radjabov