In the fourth round of the M-Tel Masters in Sofia, Veselin Topalov defeated Wang Yue convincingly with the white pieces. Carlsen and Shirov drew a hyper sharp Botvinnik Slav and now share the lead with 2.5/4. In a very complicated fight, Ivanchuk missed several wins against Dominguez and eventually had to be satisfied with a draw.

The 5th M-Tel Masters takes place May 12th to 23rd in a glass pavilion on the square in front of the National Theatre Ivan Vazov in Sofia, Bulgaria. It's a six-player double round-robin with Carlsen, Dominguez, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Topalov and Wang Yue playing. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves per player and 60 minutes per player till the end of the game. "Sofia rules" will again be used, so draw offers can be made only through the chief arbiter in the case of a threefold repetition, perpetual check or a theoretically draw position.

Round 4

Tonight we might as well call Dominguez Harry, instead of Leinier. Because what he did today against Ivanchuk can only be compared with one of the acts of Harry Houdini himself. In an extremely sharp middlegame it was Ivanchuk who got the upper hand, but in the timetrouble phase he must have missed the win at least four times.

It was a truly great game that deserves deep investigation instead of superficial computer checking like we've done over here to create the notes, but hey, at least some critical moments have been pointed out. We're certainly not intending to criticizing the players, who have to deal with a pretty fast time control. It's quite amazing what they still manage to come up with.

Carlsen-Shirov, a Botvinnik Slav, was another great fight, although we have the feeling it was preparation for both of the players way beyond White's novelty on move 24. Topalov scored a fine win over Wang Yue in a Slav ending (or rather, queenless middlegame) and is now back on fifty percent.

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Veselin Topalov, finally scoring a win on home ground...

...against Chinese top player Wang Yue

Topalov and Wang Yue at the press conference

Alexei Shirov still feels at home in sharp positions

Cuba's no. 1 Leinier Dominguez performed a Houdini act...

...against Ivanchuk, who still hasn't found his top form...

...but is experienced enough to know that better days will come

Links

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