London Chess Classic 2015 - Round 4 Recap

Opening: E06: Catalan: closed, 5.Nf3

Player(s): Nakamura, Anand

GM Maxim Dlugy recaps Round 4. Again only one decisive game, but today in London at least three games were really exciting, and ICC's broadcast went on for almost 7 hours with GMs Pablo Zarnicki and Maxim Dlugy analyzing the games to bits. Let's start with the excellent game Nakamura played today, beating former World Champion Vishy Anand for the second time in a row in a Catalan. Nakamura played at his best, waiting when it was needed, and striking hard when Anand played imprecise. It's not easy to beat Anand, especially if you have to do your magic, pulling the classic rabbit out of the hat. Caruana and Topalov played a who-misses-the-best-chance game, with mistakes on both fronts. Fabiano set up one of the best traps seen in recent times, with the amazing 45. ...Rc8!, inviting Topalov to win an exchange. Topalov couldn't resist - or did he calculate all the possible variations? - and took the rook, only to see Caruana's passed pawns roll over towards his king in a quite thundery way. Yet, Fabiano wasn't able to go for the kill, and after long struggle the game ended in a draw. Carlsen went for one of his famous squeezes in the endgame, with rook and bishop vs. knight and bishop plus a pawn for Adams, but was not able to break through. Adams defended well, holding the world champion to his fourth draw in the event. Thus far we have seen only three decisive games out of 20, but the tournament is not boring at all, with the players trying hard to find a way to win. Giri, MVL and Nakamura lead with 2.5/4, followed by Carlsen, Caruana, Aronian, Grischuk and Adams with 2. Anand at 1.5 after today's loss and Topalov closes the list with 1 point. Tomorrow Round 5 starts again at 11AM. Pairings: MVL-Giri, Caruana-Grischuk, Anand-Topalov, Adams-Nakamura, Aronian-Carlsen.