On Saturday all games in the 4th round of the Tal Memorial in Moscow ended in draws. However, on many boards the result could have been different.

Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin are still sharing the lead, with 2.5/4. The tournament, a 10-player round robin, will last five more rounds.

Levon Aronian and Vishy Anand watch the game Nepomniachtchi-Nakamura | All photos © RCF

Despite the peaceful results, round 4 was another very interesting one as again all five chess boards in the Pashkov House had turned into fierce battlefields. Saturday was also a day of missed opportunities.

Even Svidler-Gelfand, which was the most 'quiet' game of the round, had some hidden tactical motifs that could have given Gelfand some winning chances.

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Svidler was under pressure but Gelfand let it slip away to a draw

The players during the post-mortem slash press conference

Aronian got a clear endgame advantage against Anand, but the World Champion held it together with some very precise moves.

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After Anand gave a brief summary of what happened, Aronian gave an explanation in Russian

Kramnik more or less outplayed Ivanchuk with the white pieces. His position was overwhelming, but nowhere clearly winning.

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Ivanchuk vs Kramnik: different ways of concentrating

The same scenario was seen in the game between the 'kings of 1990'. Later Carlsen would tweet:

Could not make anything of a huge advantage today. Karjakin defended really well after I spoiled my position right before move 40.

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Against Karjakin, Carlsen missed a good chance to become the sole leader

The one who was winning most clearly was Nakamura. His opponent Nepomniachtchi treated the American's Dragon (!) too modestly, and was already worse with White around move 12. When his opponent missed the decisive blow on move 38, the Russian GM showed that he knows something about rook endings - he escaped in a similar way as Botvinnik did against Fischer at the Varna Olympiad in 1962 (see below), as was mentioned by Emil Sutovsky in the live commentary.

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Ian Nepomniachtchi escaped with a draw against...

...Nakamura, who hasn't been very lucky so far

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An example of the pretty interior in the Pashkov House: Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky (1725–1796), one of the foremost Russian generals of the 18th century | Photo © Macauley Peterson

Tal Memorial 2011 | Round 4 Standings

Schedule and pairings