Mark Glukhovsky

Close analysis reveals that in each fourth round game light-squared bishops played a special role. The games in which the Russian players were involved ended earlier in this round than those of the “foreign” participants. So far the walls of home have not been able to help them. It looks it is just the other way around. Svidler with White again failed to start a full-blooded fight, while Morozevich and Grischuk had competed for the right to be in the lowest row of the tournament table. Peter Svidler remained true to Ruy Lopez, which has not yet brought him any dividends. In his three White games he had to agree to draw around the 30th move, and not at all because of his peace-loving nature. As the Saint Petersburger remarked during their post-mortem with Carlsen, after what had happened in the opening his hope was to prolong the game at least to the 30th move.

He did not do it - the position was emasculated before that time and peace was made on the 29th move. In the press room, Peter told the journalists that in a rarely adopted line of the Breyer variation the Norwegian youth had been able to surprise him with the seemingly not quite correct move 16…d5. ‘The Soviet school of chess taught us that such a discharging move should have been carefully prepared, otherwise the b5-pawn would be weakened. Unfortunately. I failed to prove this,’ he summarized the outcome of the opening.

While the four-time Russian Champion was trying to remember the precepts his teachers had taught him, the Soviet school of chess has materialized in the office of our site - Anatoly Karpov in person has appeared to relieve the already working Vlad Tkachev to comment on the fourth round games live.

Unfortunately, the renowned champion could not stay with us till the end of the round and was, in his turn, replaced by Vlad Tkachev in the ‘commentator’s booth’. However, Karpov’s assessments of the respective middlegames have turned out so precise that the games ended just as he had predicted. The aforesaid holds true also for the Svidler-Carlsen encounter. The subsequent course of the game was not particularly pleasant for the Russian player - Peter seemed to keep overlooking some light by his opponent, who played exactly and concretely. After 25…Ba8 and the subsequent trading of the light-squared Bishops Peter realized that he would hardly be able to ‘subdue’ his opponent and had to agree to another white colour miss. Tomorrow Peter is playing Ruslan Ponomariov with Black.
Morozevich and Grischuk, who have already fallen victims to the Ukrainian, were having a showdown to decide who would be at the very bottom of the tournament table.

Games between these players very often end with a decisive result, so the spectators were justified in expecting that it would be a real fight. Judging by the mere result of the game, their expectations have been fulfilled, but as Morozevich remarked after the game, everything had already been decided in the opening. In the very sharp Topalov variation, which Grischuk has successfully adopted against Anand and (in this tournament) Leko, Morozevich has prepared an important improvement. Grischuk has failed his way in the intricacies of the position that has emerged, replying as the old routine suggested. According to Morozevich, 16…Bd6 was the decisive mistake, after which 17. Nf5 gave White a big advantage. It is to be able to make this move that White has delayed castling his King: Black is unable to capture on h2 with check and he must not lose control of the d6 square after 17…Be5 18. f4! because White gives a check on c8 with his Rook to win the Black’s Queen. After 17…0-0 that happened in the game, a position has arisen where winning was a matter of technique for White. Grischuk gave up his Rook for White’s light-squared Bishop, which, however, failed to prolong the resistance. Having finished the demonstration of the game where his homework ended, Morozevich left the press club. That was the first appearance of Alexander before the journalists.

One would hope that we will more than once see the highly talented Muscovite there. Indeed, we have repeatedly witnessed that after his first win in a tournament Morozevich begins to play an order of magnitude stronger than before. As for Grischuk’s loss, well, here the old, mouth drawing comment borrowed from soccer – ‘you don’t score a goal, then your opponent does’ - is two hundred percent applicable. After two of Alexander’s excellent opening novelties misfired, the present catastrophe seems to be rather a regular outcome than an annoying accident.

The encounter between Alexei Shirov and Levon Aronian turned out to be somewhat strange. The advocates of Ruy Lopez have recently had it a hard way. Whereas White is unable to gain an advantage in the classical variations, in the Marshall counterattack things go even worse for him: it is either a forced draw or a difficult position.

In his online comments, Anatoly Karpov expressed his bewilderment with the choice of opening made by the former inhabitant of Riga. Understandably, Alexei Shirov, who had the White pieces, had planned improve at some point his play from his game with Leko in the previous round, but his today’s opponent turned from the trodden path a move earlier. Levon Aronian who, on his second’s advice, played very fast, somewhat easily neutralized his opponent’s bishop pair (by swapping the light-squared bishops!) and then got a very nice endgame, in which Alexei failed to defend himself in the best way possible. Aronian continues supplying instructive material for very young chess players, the level of the instruction ever rising.

While the oversight in the third may be of use only for the beginners, today’s endgame will very soon be studied by second-category players. At least that is what a former chess coach, who is currently being employed at the Petrosian chess club, told me. Mark Borisovich, who cannot attend the tournament every day, was content with this round - the skilled spectators like when a game is played ‘to the end’. In the two remaining games no one wanted to yield.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was, to the last, searching very hard for resources in the pawn chain-bound position, bud to no avail. Even the most severe punishment would not be unjust for his light-squared Bishop, useless as Oksana Robsky’s novel. At some point the tired Ponomariov’s eyes began to shine with a dangerous gleam, which, as I then, as I then thought, was foreboding his intention to change from defensive to offensive play. The position, however, remained too static. A draw was reached on the 79th move.

The most enduring journalist still stayed at the press room, waiting for Peter Leko who was slowly and methodically winning from Boris Gelfand. Although the latter admitted his loss only on the 80th, there have not been any doubts about the outcome of the game. And perhaps those who were so sure were wrong: some of the subtleties that passed unnoticed to us were explained by Peter despite his extreme tiredness.

His first win from Gelfand in a classical time control game Leko obtained with the first move d4 prepared for his match with Kramnik. ‘So many times I have played 1.e4 against him - to gain nothing!’ exclaimed (in good Russian) the happy Hungarian. In the present game, a Slav Defense novelty has worked, which confronted Boris with a choice: either a slow, unpleasant endgame or weakening the shelter of his King with the Queens on the board. Boris has chosen the former and perhaps wrongly. Peter confirmed that the novelty he revealed was not a one-time and that he was prepared to play this endgame again and again. Indeed, the game is in his favor, with only two outcomes (win or draw) and without the slightest risk. Several small inaccuracies committed by his opponent were sufficient to turn the just pleasant position to that pleasant in all respects. And again, a special role in this belonged to the light-squared Bishop, which was taking pains for both itself and dumb colleague from the Mamediyarov - Ponomariov game.

In the endgame where he was a piece ahead Leko, however, was a bit slow, allowing Gelfand a chance (missed!) to pose him very serious problems. But everything ended well for Peter: Gelfand missed 57…Re7, after which Leko did not see how to press on. And with his 57…g3 the Israeli Grandmaster missed his last chance to resist and play on for the sake of appearances, fishing for an accidental chance. Maybe the fourth game of the Kasparov-Kramnik match was before his mental sight, where Garry, with the same material deficiency managed to escape to a draw at the last moment. At any rate a miracle did not happen and Boris with Peter exchanged their respective places in the tournament table, a table well reflecting the even composition of the strongest tournament of the year.