Karjakin's day

Three players can look forward to their rest day tomorrow whilst getting ready for round five on Thursday. Svidler and Mamedyarov duly avoided losing with White and are joined by Karjakin who was the only winner in today's play... with the black pieces!

So the statistics of round 4 make unusual reading: White wins 0, draws 13, Black wins 3!

Yesterday, Mamedyarov against Laznicka, and Svidler against Shirov, virtually assured their qualification and (after drawing) they will be joined in round 5 by Karjakin who outplayed Vitiugov in today's round. He was successful with a fairly recent idea in the Nimzoindian against which White hasn't been able to show anything convincing.

No wonder they are looking so happy!
official site

The other five matches have featured only draws, but Ponomariov seems to have missed a win deep into the knight endgame against Bacrot. He will be kicking himself letting the advantage slip, but a few moves earlier Bacrot had a 'book' draw but erred, so neither player will be fully satisfied with their technique!

Close, but not quite precise enough to break down Bacrot's resistance.
official site

Caruana also maintained an enduring advantage against Gashimov but couldn't convert.

Caruana escorted by his father and ready for battle.
official site

Here is a summary of the fourth round matches so far:

NameCountryRatingAgeGame 1Game 2NameCountryRatingAge
Vachier_LagraveFRA2718190.5-0.50.5-0.5GelfandISR275841
LaznickaCZE2637210-10.5-0.5MamedyarovAZE271924
KarjakinUKR2723190.5-0.51-0VitiugovRUS269422
GashimovAZE2758230.5-0.50.5-0.5CaruanaITA265217
BacrotFRA2700260.5-0.50.5-0.5PonomariovUKR273926
ShirovESP2719370-10.5-0.5SvidlerRUS275433
SoPHI2640160.5-0.50.5-0.5MalakhovRUS270629
GrischukRUS2736260.5-0.50.5-0.5JakovenkoRUS273626

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