Levon Aronian rejoined Magnus Carlsen in the lead at the 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. On Tuesday the Armenian grandmaster defeated Gata Kamsky with White, while tournament leader Carlsen drew with the black pieces against Fabiano Caruana. After two losses Sergey Karjakin won his second consecutive game, against David Navara. Going into the first rest day, both Pentala Harikrishna (B group) and Maxim Turov (C group) are leading by a full point.

Perhaps it's too early to say so, but the 74th edition of the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee seems destined to become a fierce and fantastic fight between the two highest rated players, Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen. And who will make their life more difficult, a young chap like Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin, Teimour Radjabov, or perhaps Veselin Topalov, or Vassily Ivanchuk?

We'll know more after Wednesday, which is the first of three rest days in the Grandmaster Groups A, B and C. (Some of the players are intending to play some football on one of the squares in Wijk aan Zee, but unfortunately the weather doesn't seem to cooperate nicely...)

After his game against Gata Kamsky, Levon Aronian felt that he had been in the same situation as the day before - his loss against Magnus Carlsen - but this time on the other side.

I was the one who was pressing, also managed to let my opponent get away but in the end he was the last one to make a mistake.

PGN string

Sergey Karjakin shares one thing with Levon Aronian: after four rounds the Russian grandmaster hasn't drawn a single game. His game on Tuesday should have been a draw, though, but in the famous Berlin Endgame, David Navara avoided a move repetition and then started to make mistakes.

PGN string

The round saw a small incident, related to the game between Vassily Ivanchuk and Loek van Wely. The Ukrainian was building up a nice advantage, but then he allowed his opponent to escape:

PGN string

Immediately after the game ended, it became clear that Ivanchuk was hugely disappointed about losing the advantage. The round report on the official website describes it well:

The Ukrainian, clearly disgusted over his own dismal performance, sadly shook his head, groaned audibly while signing his score sheet, then tried to rip the hair from his scalp and finally left the tournament arena after a nasty karate kick against the door guarding the players’ exit.

The video crew noticed as well, but eventually it was decided not to include their footage of the incident in the daily round video. You can see a bit of Chuky's reaction in one of the 'En Passant' videos, though.

Going into the first rest day, Pentala Harikrishna of India is a full point ahead of the rest after a 40-move draw with white against Lithuania’s Viktorija Cmilyte. The prize for best game of the round in this group went to Alexander Motylev for his victory against Sergei Tiviakov.

PGN string

Maxim Turov won all four games so far in Grandmaster Group C and he's also leading by a full point. The best game was played by Baskaran Adhiban against fellow Indian Sahaj Grover.

PGN string

Daily video by the organizers

Games group A, round 4

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Round 4 standings

Games group B, round 4

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Round 4 standings

Games group C, round 4

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Round 4 standings

Vassily Ivanchuk and Veselin Topalov chatting before their game

Grandmaster Group C at the start of the 4th round

Joint analysis with Pentala Harikrishna, Tania Sachdev, Sahaj Grover and Baskaran Adhiban of India

Ilya Nyzhnyk and Vladimir Potkin looking at their game, and Anish Giri kibitzing