A six pack in Astrakhan.

It was Inarkiev's day as he won with Black to join the leading bunch: Eljanov, Gashimov, Gelfand, Leko and Ponomariov are the others tied on 2.5/4.
The high number of draws shows that the players are careful to avoid losing as there is so much at stake.
A place in the prestigious candidates tournament being in everyone's mind.

Quite a variety of openings today with Gashimov showing his faith in the dynamic Modern Benoni and Ponomariov again playing the solid 'Berlin Wall' in the head-to-head battles amongst the leaders.

Wang Yue played a slightly suspicious variation in my opinion, but got away with it as he managed to get enough activity for his pawn.

Game No.NameRatingResultNameRatingOpening
1Peter Svidler27350.5-0.5Teimour Radjabov2740English opening (A16)
2Peter Leko27350.5-0.5Ruslan Ponomariov2733Spanish Berlin (C67)
3Vassily Ivanchuk27410-1Ernesto Inarkiev2669Caro-Kann Panov (B13)
4Dmitry Jakovenko27250.5-0.5Evgeny Alekseev2700Queen's Indian (E18)
5Boris Gelfand27410.5-0.5Wang Yue2752Grünfeld Schlechter (D94)
6Pavel Eljanov27510.5-0.5Vugar Gashimov2734Modern Benoni (A61)
7Vladimir Akopian26940.5-0.5Shakhriyar Mamedyarov2763Spanish Breyer (C95)

Ivanchuk loses his second game (this time after over-pressing) and slips to last place.

Oh no not again! © official site

Here are the tournament rankings after four rounds with six players sharing first place.

RankingNameCountryPresent RatingPoints
1st-6thPavel EljanovUkraine27512.5
1st-6thVugar GashimovAzerbaijan27342.5
1st-6thBoris GelfandIsrael27412.5
1st-6thErnesto InarkievRussia26692.5
1st-6thPeter LekoHungary27352.5
1st-6thRuslan PonomariovUkraine27332.5
7th-9thDmitry JakovenkoRussia27252
7th-9thTeimour RadjabovAzerbaijan2740 2
7th-9thWang YueChina27522
10th-13thVladimir AkopianArmenia26941.5
10th-13thEvgeny AlekseevRussia27001.5
10th-13thShakhriyar MamedyarovAzerbaijan27631.5
10th-13thPeter SvidlerRussia27351.5
14thVassily IvanchukUkraine27411

Only six decisive games out of 28 is a very low percentage at any level.

For further information on this event, I suggest that you go to the official tournament site.


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