Round 4.1: Carlsen, Shirov and Ponomariov win

Sixteen players left, eight games to play, and this resulted in five draws and three wins today. Carlsen and Shirov beat their opponents Adams and Akopian in fine endings, while Ponomariov profited from Sasikiran’s weakened king. A new concept in the Advanced Caro-Kann allowed Nisipeanu to draw easily with Black against Karjakin. In his game with Cheparinov, Wang Yue showed that the Queen’s Gambit Declined is OK after 5.Bf4. Jakovenko used the same opening to draw even quicker with highest seed Aronian, Kamsky used the Breyer Ruy Lopez to do the same against Svidler (but needed 60 moves) and Alekseev-Bareev’s draw added up to the material for a possible second article by GMs l’Ami & Smeets on the Moscow Variation.

World Cup Round 4.1 Results