Carlsen is imperial!

Magnus Carlsen against Fabiano Caruana © official site

Magnus Carlsen won again, this time against Fabiano Cariano in the Scotch. Two relatively quick draws in the other games have left the Norwegian wunderkind well ahead of the remaining players.

The summary of Round 4:

White	Rating	Results	Black	Rating	Moves	Opening
Alexei Shirov	2714	½-½	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	2722	24	Sicilian Najdorf
Alexander Morozevich	2694	½-½	Yannick Pelletier	2690	31	French Rubinstein
Magnus Carlsen	2821	1-0	Fabiano Caruana	2711	27	Scotch Opening

One unusual factor in the pairings system is that the players sometimes have three consecutive games with the same colour: Pelletier started with three Whites, and Caruana has just had three Blacks!

Here is the table after four rounds:

Posn.	Name	Country	Rating	1w	1b	2w	2b	3w	3b	4w	4b	5w	5b	6w	6b	Standard pts	Perf.
1.	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2821	*	*	.	½	1	.	.	1	.	.	1	.	3.5	3013
2.	Morozevich, Alexander	RUS	2694	½	.	*	*	.	½	½	.	.	1	.	.	2.5	2806
3.	Shirov, Alexei	ESP	2714	.	0	½	.	*	*	.	.	½	.	1	.	2	2737
4.	Pelletier, Yannick	SUI	2590	0	.	.	½	.	.	*	*	½	.	½	.	1.5	2650
5.	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA	2722	.	.	0	.	.	½	.	½	*	*	.	½	1.5	2590
6.	Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	2711	.	0	.	.	.	0	.	½	½	.	*	*	1	2518

The classification according to the Biel points is even more striking:

Position	Name	Country	Rating	Biel Points
1	Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2815	10
2	Alexander Morozevich	RUS	2694	6
3	Alexei Shirov	ESP	2714	5
4-5	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	FRA	2722	3
4-5	Yannick Pelletier	SUI	2590	3
6	Fabiano Caruana	ITA	2711	2

The rate of play:

120 minutes for 40 moves, then 60 mins for 20 further moves

and then 15 mins (with a 30 seconds increment per move) for the rest of the game.

No draw offers are permitted before move 30.

The schedule:

18th to 20th of July: Rounds 1 to 3 at 2 pm (local time)

21st rest day

22nd to 23rd: Rounds 4 and 5 at 2 pm

24th rest day

25th to 28th: Rounds 6 to 9 at 2 pm

29th: Round 10 at 11 am

Note that 2pm in Switzerland is the same time as in Paris and Madrid.

Subtract one hour for London and six for New York.

Official site: www.bielchessfestival.ch

Live games: http://live.bielchessfestival.ch/