10 of the 16 matches in round 4 of the World Cup are going to tiebreaks tomorrow, and Magnus Carlsen’s match with Vincent Keymer is one of them. Just as Carlsen essentially lost the first game of their match in one move on day 1, so too did Keymer lose it all at once in the rematch. 51…Bg2 lost the game, but to be fair it was the capstone of a bad plan that started with 50…c6. It should also be noted that both players missed a simple tactic much earlier, and had Keymer spotted the fairly simple 17…Nxe4, Carlsen would almost surely have been eliminated from the tournament. As it is, they’ll play rapid (& potentially blitz) tiebreaks tomorrow, and it’s unlikely that Keymer will be given a second golden opportunity to qualify for round 5.
Someone who did cash in on his opportunity is Alexey Sarana, who had no trouble whatsoever on the white side of a Gruenfeld against Wesley So. Sarana had won a nice, short game the previous day with the black pieces, and comfortably steered the game to a draw today, achieving his aim in just 30 uneventful moves.
The other Americans had mixed fortunes. Hikaru Nakamura drew with Black against Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, but was fortunate that Pragg didn’t come up with 23.e5! dxe5 24.f4!, tying Black down hand and foot in return for a mere pawn. They’re off to tiebreaks. Likewise Leinier Dominguez and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. In contrast to their first game, Wojtaszek had no difficulties this time, even with Black, and like Sarana vs. So the game ended in 30 moves.
The other Americans were paired, so one player’s good news was the other’s sadness. Fabiano Caruana defeated Ray Robson speedily (27 moves) and brutally, despite Robson making the decision to try a rare line in which he’d theoretically have the edge in preparation. Maybe he did, but once they reached the middlegame Robson was at sea, and Caruana was ready with the torpedos.
Back to the day 1 winners. Other than Keymer, the rest drew today to advance to the round of 16. Sarana was already mentioned, and another underdog, Ferenc Berkes, also advanced fairly comfortably. He had Black against Ruslan Ponomariov, who managed to win a pawn but without thereby obtaining winning chances in the Marshall Gambit-like ending that ensued. Vidit Gujrathi won on day one and tried to wipe out Etienne Bacrot today, too, but his piece sac nearly backfired. By the end he was winning, but was content to force a draw to eliminate his opponent. Finally, Nils Grandelius had so little trouble defending with Black that his opponent, Jaime Santos Latasa, preferred to repeat his way out of the tournament than to battle on in his worse but not even nearly lost position.
One more decisive result to report on from today’s play: Arjun Erigaisi defeated (and eliminated) Javokhir Sindarov. Sindarov’s preparation was terrible, and Sindarov’s first new move came in a position that was nearly lost. To his credit he battled all the way back to nominal equality, but then fatally erred in an objectively drawn (but practically worse) rook ending.
Some brief comments on other matches: Jan-Krzysztof Duda defended excellently almost throughout his difficult rook ending with Parham Maghsoodloo. The exception, which was repeated, was his failure on moves 41 and 42 to play …Rg8. Maghsoodloo would have had the advantage had he replied with 42.Re2 or 43.Kh5. Aside from that, Duda’s defense was very good - almost a model worthy of study.
In the Nihal Sarin vs. Ian Nepomniachtchi game, Sarin had a serious edge for quite a while, but the almost-champ survived to reach the tiebreaks. Surprisingly, Vasyl Ivanchuk didn’t have to do any surviving, as Vahap Sanal showed no interest in trying to achieve anything with White, allowing a known repetition in just 14 moves. Finally, Saleh Salem had a big chance against Daniele Vocaturo, but for some reason refrained from 42…Rexe5, collecting a valuable pawn for nothing. In a bullet game one might see 43.f4 and get scared, but even in blitz and certainly in a classical game an elite GM should have no trouble spotting 43…Qc5 in reply. Perhaps there was another issue, or maybe the stress of the moment made him freeze up. If he’s eliminated from the event, though, he’ll probably be kicking himself for a while for missing or rejecting this capture.
A selection of today’s games, with my comments, is here. As noted above, there will be 10 tiebreakers tomorrow, and of the six matches that are over only two have produced a pairing for round 5: Erigaisi and Grandelius will face off this weekend. For the other pairings, stay tuned.