Isle of Man Rd 4 - Shirov takes sole lead with 4.

0/4
by Johannes Fischer
10/5/2016 Alexei Shirov is famous for his wild tactical play and his intuitive sacrifices. However, in the top encounter
Close x of round four in the Isle of
Man tournament he defeated the young and tremendously talented Indian Grandmaster Santosh Gujrathi Vidit with dry but strong technical chess
to take the sole lead with 4.0/4. Half a point behind follow five players with 3.5/4 each. One of them is Wesley So who won with Black against Julio
Granda Zuniga, showing very energetic play.

O p e n i n g

E n c y c l o p e d i a

2 0 1 6

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Isle of Man Round four

Photos by Lennart Ootes

The playing hall

Mr. 100 percent - after four rounds Alexei Shirov leads with 4.0/4.

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi from India

In his game against the young Indian Shirov showed that he is not only a great tactician but also a strong positional player. In a position that
seemed to be almost equal Shirov found ways to put his opponent under pressure and though Vidit made no obvious mistake he was not able to
hold the game.

Wesley So
Wesley So impressed with fine energetic play which brought him a convincing victory against Julio Granda Zuniga.

Top pairings and results of Round 4 (October 4, 2016)

Bo. No.

Rtg

Name

Pts. Result Pts.

Name

Rtg

No.

11

GM Shirov Alexei

2679 3

1-0

GM

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

2686 9

16

GM Salem A.R. Saleh

2650 2

GM

Caruana Fabiano

2813 1

18

GM Granda Zuniga Julio E 2648 2

0-1

GM

So Wesley

2794 2

22

GM Grandelius Nils

2642 2

GM

Nakamura Hikaru

2787 3

GM Adams Michael

2745 2

GM

Hou Yifan

2649 17

49

IM

2459 2

0-1

GM

Eljanov Pavel

2741 5

GM Rodshtein Maxim

2687 2

1-0

GM

Howell David W L

2644 21

10

GM Naiditsch Arkadij

2684 2

1-0

GM

Gupta Abhijeet

2626 23

12

GM Movsesian Sergei

2677 2

1-0

GM

Lenderman Aleksandr

2593 27

10

24

GM Van Foreest Jorden

2615 2

GM

Fressinet Laurent

2676 13

11

14

GM Sargissian Gabriel

2670 2

GM

L'ami Erwin

2605 25

12

GM Leko Peter

2709 2

1-0

IM

Trent Lawrence

2463 47

13

54

IM

2442 2

GM

Meier Georg

2648 19

14

20

GM Bachmann Axel

2645 2

1-0

GM

Romanishin Oleg M

2456 51

15

26

GM Bok Benjamin

2594 2

1-0

IM

Lou Yiping

2458 50

16

28

GM Lalith Babu M R

2586 2

1-0

GM

Tarjan James E

2420 61

17

29

GM Donchenko Alexander 2581 2

IM

Tania Sachdev

2414 62

18

64

IM

2400 2

GM

Marin Mihail

2569 30

19

31

GM Brunello Sabino

2566 2

WIM Shvayger Yuliya

20

67

IM

2386 2

GM

Paehtz Elisabeth

Praggnanandhaa R

Das Arghyadip

Houska Jovanka

2405 63

Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2564 32

Full results of all 68 games

Top standings after four rounds

Rk. SNo
1
2

sex FED

Rtg

TB1

GM So Wesley

USA 2794 3,5

4 3,5 1,4

GM Eljanov Pavel

UKR 2741 3,5

4 3,5 1,3

GM Rodshtein Maxim

ISR

2687 3,5

4 3,5 7,8

10

GM Naiditsch Arkadij

AZE

2684 3,5

3 3

12

GM Movsesian Sergei

ARM 2677 3,5

4 3,5 6,9

GM Caruana Fabiano

USA 2813 3,0

4 3

-2,0

GM Nakamura Hikaru

USA 2787 3,0

4 3

-1,6

GM Adams Michael

ENG 2745 3,0

4 3

-1,0

GM Leko Peter

HUN 2709 3,0

4 3

-3,7

GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

IND

2686 3,0

4 3

2,1

13

GM Fressinet Laurent

FRA

2676 3,0

4 3

0,1

14

GM Sargissian Gabriel

ARM 2670 3,0

4 3

1,5

16

GM Salem A.R. Saleh

UAE

2650 3,0

4 3

2,1

17

GM Hou Yifan

CHN 2649 3,0

4 3

5,3

20

GM Bachmann Axel

PAR

2645 3,0

4 3

-1,3

22

GM Grandelius Nils

SWE 2642 3,0

4 3

7,5

24

GM Van Foreest Jorden

NED 2615 3,0

4 3

6,7

25

GM L'ami Erwin

NED 2605 3,0

4 3

1,8

26

GM Bok Benjamin

NED 2594 3,0

4 3

3,3

28

GM Lalith Babu M R

IND

2586 3,0

4 3

-0,9

35

GM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan

IND

2536 3,0

4 3

5,0

44

IM

GEO 2480 3,0

4 3

4,1

46

GM Illingworth Max

AUS 2465 3,0

4 3

3,6

IND

4 3

17,0

Batsiashvili Nino

Hemant Sharma (del)

2371 3,0

4 4

rtg+/-

LAT

2679 4,0

GM Shirov Alexei

71
26

Name

11

11,9

7,8

15

GM Melkumyan Hrant

ARM 2653 2,5

4 2,5 -8,0

18

GM Granda Zuniga Julio E

PER

2648 2,5

4 2,5 -1,9

19

GM Meier Georg

GER 2648 2,5

4 2,5 -6,8

21

GM Howell David W L

ENG 2644 2,5

4 2,5 -0,7

23

GM Gupta Abhijeet

IND

4 2,5 -3,3

27

GM Lenderman Aleksandr

USA 2593 2,5

4 2,5 0,9

29

GM Donchenko Alexander

GER 2581 2,5

4 2,5 -5,8

30

GM Marin Mihail

ROU 2569 2,5

4 2,5 -6,9

Click for complete standings

2626 2,5

Hikaru Nakamura drew with Black against Nils Grandelius.

Elisabeth Phtz from Germany lost with White against...

...Pavel Eljanov

Women's World Champion Hou Yifan had a good start into the tournament:
with 3.0/4 she is one point behind the leader and has gained 5 Elo-points.
In round four she drew against Michael Adams.

Michael Adams

Games of rounds 1 to 4

Watch it live on Playchess!

Links

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Johannes Fischer
Johannes Fischer, editor-in-chief of the English ChessBase website, studied English and German literature in Frankfurt and now lives in
Nrnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and apart from his work for ChessBase he regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing
on culture and chess, and the Chess-Blog of ZEIT-Online . On his own blog Schner Schein he publishes "Notes on Film, Literature and
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Topics
Wesley So, Isle of Man, Alexei Shirov

See also

Isle of Man Rd5 - Upsets and superstitions

10/6/2016 Some days you have quiet rounds where the top seeds do their business without much fuss, most of
them win with a few draws but the fifth round of the Isle of Man tournament saw a few big names have a real setback.
Second seed Hikaru Nakamura, former world championship challenger Peter Leko and top Paraguayan GM Axel
Bachmann were all defeated by lower-rated opponents in very sharp games. Report with games and test positions.
[Discuss]

2016 Isle of Man Rd3 - Action all around

10/4/2016 In a large open as strong as the Isle of Man, every round is a feast, every game a meal, with no shortage
of exciting positions and exotic play. Round three saw many of the top players already facing stiff grandmaster
competition with few of the lopsided pairings from the first two days. This led to some exciting bouts including hard
fought draws at the top. Sharing his enthusiasm of all there was to see is Manuel Weeks, highlighting some of the best
games with lots of quiz positions. [Discuss]

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JackCrabb 10/5/2016 01:41
Dear ChessBase,
I think your readers are quite keen to know why Alexey Shirov doesn't play the 5th round today.
At English opens taking a bye is quite common among amateurs who have nothing to do with the struggle for victory. However,
I've never seen a tournament leader doing this. Can you find out why ?

johnmk 10/6/2016 12:24

Shirov was a terror earlier in his career. Looks like he is able to recapture some of the past glory in this tournament.

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