The FIDE World Cup has reached its fourth round, and six out of the eight games ended decisively: Polgar-Dominguez 0-1, Svidler-Kamsky 1-0, Gashimov-Nielsen 1-0, Radjabov-Jakovenko 1-0, Zherebukh-Navara 0-1 and Potkin-Grischuk 1-0. The games Bruzon-Ponomariov and Bu Xiangzhi-Ivanchuk ended in draws.

General info

The 2011 FIDE World Cup is a 128-player knock-out taking place August 27-September 20 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. The tournament delivers three participants for the next Candidates tournament/matches, as part of the new World Championship cycle. Except for the final, all rounds have 2-game matches at the FIDE time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, with a 30-second increment from the first move. In case of a 1-1 tie, on the third day of the round there's a tie-break with rapid games and if necessary blitz games and an Armageddon. More info here.

Round 4.1

Earlier we wrote that as soon as the rating differences decrease between the players, the number of draws will increase in the World Cup. While this theory follows a recent analysis by Jeff Sonas, on the first day of the fourth round the players seemed to disagree! In a very blood-thirsty round, six out of eight games ended decisively.

After she knocked out the top seed in the previous round, most eyes were on Judit Polgar. Things didn't go so well this time.

Polgar-Dominguez
Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011

Polgar didn't play too well in the middlegame and has been slightly worse for a while already. After the next move it's over immediately.
44. b4?
44. h4 Rg1+ 45. Kh3 Rh1+ 46. Rh2 still keeps drawing chances.
44... Be3! 45. Qf3 Rg1+ 46. Kh3 Qg5 0-1

David Navara, who is quickly becoming one of the fans' favourites, won easily when Yaroslav Zherebukh blundered material.

Zherebukh-Navara
Khanty-Mansiysk, 2011

Black is already better, but the next move loses material.
20. Bd3? Bxd4 21. Qxd4 Bxd3 22. cxd3
22. Qxd3 Qb6+ 23. Kh1 Nf2+.
22... Nd2!
If the f1-rook moves, 23...Nb3 will win the exchange anyway. Zherebukh tried the creative
23. Rae1 Nxf1 24. Rxe6!? but 24... Nd2 25. Nxd5 Nb3 26. Qe5 Ra7 was, with an extra rook, not difficult to defend for Black.

Vugar Gashimov, who didn't need a tie-break thus far, beat Peter Heine Nielsen in a Berlin Wall - again one of the most popular defences for Black against 1.e4 in Khanty. Nielsen tried a positional exchange sacrifice which indeed looked quite OK for Black, but in the end Gashimov managed to win anyway.

After eliminating the higher-reated Nikita Vitiugov, Vladimir Potkin continued very strongly with a convincing win against Alexander Grischuk. Teimour Radjabov's play against Dmitry Jakovenko also looked very powerful, as the Azeri's play looked in general thus far. Peter Svidler did the same against Gata Kramnik, an opponent he normally has difficulties playing against. 

Games round 4.1

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