A hat-trick for Ivanchuk

Vassily Ivanchuk
A third consecutive win has put Vassily Ivanchuk in a commanding position in Sao Paulo. His messy complicated struggle against Levon Aronian favoured the Ukrainian for most of the game. In the other games, Viswanathan Anand won with the bishop pair in a simplified game against Vallejo Pons, whilst Magnus Carlsen was unable to make headway against Hikaru Nakamura's solid Queen's Gambit.

Here are the results from the fourth round:

White Country Rating Result Black Country Rating Opening
Levon Aronian  ARM 2807 0-1 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2765 Queen's Gambit Ragozin
Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2716 0-1  Viswanathan Anand IND 2817 English Opening
Magnus Carlsen NOR 2823 ½-½ Hikaru Nakamura  USA 2753 Queen's Gambit Declined

The tournament table takes into account the Sofia rules: 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, but the traditional scoring system can be found in brackets.

Rank Name Country Rating 1w 1b 2w 2b 3w 3b 4w 4b 5w 5b 6w 6b Points
1 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2765 * * . 1 . 1 . ½ . . 1 . 10 (3½)
2-3 Viswanathan Anand  IND  2817  0 . * * . . . ½ ½  . . 1 5 (2)
2-3 Levon Aronian  ARM 2807 0 . . . * ½ . . ½ 1 . 5 (2)
4 Hikaru Nakamura USA 2753 ½ . ½ . . ½ * . ½ . . 4 (2)
5 Magnus Carlsen  NOR 2823 . . . ½ ½  . ½ . * * . 0 3 (1½)
6 Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2716 . 0 0 . . 0 . . 1 . * * 3 (1)

Neither Magnus Carlsen nor Hikaru Nakamura have yet to win a game in Sao Paulo.

As a reminder, here is what happened in the earlier rounds:

First round

White Country Rating Result Black Country Rating Opening
Levon Aronian ARM 2807 1-0 Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2716 Slav Defence
Viswanathan Anand IND 2817 ½-½  Magnus Carlsen NOR 2823 Spanish Berlin
Hikaru Nakamura  USA 2753 ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2765 Keres Defence

Second round

White Country Rating Result Black Country Rating Opening
Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2765 1-0 Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2716 English Opening
Magnus Carlsen NOR 2823 ½-½  Levon Aronian  ARM 2807 Spanish with d3
Hikaru Nakamura  USA 2753 ½-½ Viswanathan Anand  IND 2817 Semi-Slav, Botvinnik

Third round

White Country Rating Result Black Country Rating Opening
Viswanathan Anand  IND 2817 0-1 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2765 Spanish Schliemann
Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2716 1-0  Magnus Carlsen NOR 2823 Modern Opening
Levon Aronian  ARM 2807 ½-½ Hikaru Nakamura  USA 2753 Slav/Grünfeld 

The official site for additional information www.bilbaofinalmasters.com and live games.

Note these times if you want to follow the live games:

3pm Sao Paulo

8pm (Paris)

7pm (London)

10pm (Moscow)

2pm (New York)

10am (Los Angeles)

4am (Sydney)


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