Boris Gelfand is the sole leader again at the FIDE Grand Prix in London. In Monday's fourth round the Israeli grandmaster defeated Wang Hao, who blundered mate in a drawn rook ending. After three draws Alexander Grischuk won his first game, against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Tomorrow the game between Gelfand and Mamedyarov is scheduled to start one hour earlier to respect Yom Kippur.

Wang Hao blunders against Boris Gelfand | Image from video feed

The sunshine was short lived in London since Monday was rainy again. This weather, more typical for the UK capital of course, is quite suitable for a game of chess and that's exactly what Vassily Ivanchuk said before the start of the round! Therefore it was all the more surprising that the Ukrainian didn't play on in the final position against Anish Giri.

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Macauley Peterson, who is producing the live video and video interviews in London, chased down Ivanchuk at Covent Garden market.

After demolishing Anish Giri in the previous round, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was less lucky the next day. Right after the opening his h7-h5 looks suspicious and Alexander Grischuk could choose between different winning plans.

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Veselin Topalov was never in trouble against Hikaru Nakamura's Alapin Sicilian. In fact the position looked better for Black at the end of the game, but "White was always very solid" (Topalov).

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Rustam Kasimdzhanov surprised Leinier Dominguez with 1.e4, when the Cuban decided to deviate from his usual repertoire by going for the Berlin. The most interesting part of the game was the bishop ending; even afterwards the players weren't sure if it was winning for White or not.

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In what they called the "New Anti-Marshall" Peter Leko and Mickey Adams drew after 47 moves. Just when the Hungarian felt he was better, his opponent made a strong move and everything was suddenly unclear.

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The longest game of the round ended dramatically. Thanks to strong preparation Gelfand won a pawn, but Wang Hao defended very well to reach a drawn rook ending. However, after a mistake by the Chinese White was winning but Gelfand missed it. Then a big blunder by Wang Hao more or less forced Gelfand to see the winning idea!

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(Jump to 04:40:50 to see the final phase of the game.)

Schedule & pairings

London GP 2012 | Round 4 standings