Alexander Riazantsev sacrificed a pawn against the Chebanenko Slav in order to keep his opponent's king in the centre. In return, Sokolov gave up the exchange in order to get his king to safety and seemed to have obtained plenty of play, until he was rocked back by a combination involving a queen sacrifice. The queen was taboo but then Black was in trouble anyway due to the weakness of his back rank.
Number 2 seed Jakovenko showed his expertise in technical positions as he maintained a space bind against Nikita Vitiugov's Semi-Slav and was eventually able to pick off a pawn in the endgame.
| Alexander Motylev | Russia | 2704 | 0.5-0.5 | Sergey Karjakin | Russia | 2739 |
| Emil Sutovsky | Israel | 2661 | 0.5-0.5 | Baadur Jobava | Georgia | 2715 |
| Sergei Rublevsky | Russia | 2704 | 0.5-0.5 | Arkadij Naiditsch | Germany | 2686 |
| Dmitry Jakovenko | Russia | 2725 | 1-0 | Nikita Vitiugov | Russia | 2707 |
| Alexander Onischuk | USA | 2699 | ? | Victor Bologan | Moldavia | 2668 |
| Alexander Riazantsev | Russia | 2674 | 1-0 | Ivan Sokolov | Bosnia-Herzegovina | 2654 |
Alexander Motylev may have won the event last year, but drawing all of his games (many of them rather quickly) isn't a sign that he is particularly determined to repeat that achievement!
More exciting was the complex endgame between Emil Sutovsky and Baadur Jobava where White had an extra pawn but the fight for the initiative was the most important feature. The race in the rook ending led to a repetition.
The longest game was Rublevsky-Naiditsch which was very double-edged throughout and led to the book draw (that is, almost always at GM level!) of 'pawnless Rook and Knight versus Rook'.
| Position | Name | Country | Rating | World ranking | Age | Points after 4 rounds |
| 1st-2nd | Dmitry Jakovenko | RUS | 2725 | 21 | 26 | 4 |
| 1st-2nd | Alexander Riazantsev | RUS | 2674 | 58 | 24 | 4 |
| 3rd-4th | Sergey Karjakin | RUS | 2739 | 14 | 20 | 3.5 |
| 3rd-4th | Emil Sutovsky | ISR | 2661 | 75 | 32 | 3.5 |
| 5th-6th | Nikita Vitiugov | RUS | 2707 | 32 | 23 | 3 |
| 5th-6th | Alexander Motylev | RUS | 2704 | 34 | 30 | 3 |
| 7th-10th | Victor Bologan | MDA | 2668 | 64 | 38 | 2.5/5 |
| 7th-10th | Baadur Jobava | GEO | 2715 | 26 | 26 | 2.5 |
| 7th-10th | Sergei Rublevsky | RUS | 2704 | 33 | 35 | 2.5 |
| 7th-10th | Arkadij Naiditsch | GER | 2686 | 47 | 24 | 2.5 |
| 11th-12th | Alexander Onischuk | USA | 2699 | 38 | 34 | 2/5 |
| 11th-12th | Ivan Sokolov | BIH | 2654 | 83 | 41 | 2 |
There were no moves coming through from the Onischuk-Bologan game, so I'm not sure what happened. Either there was a technical fault, or perhaps the game has been postponed (until tomorrow?). So in the table, for ten of the players the points total is out of six rounds, whereas Bologan and Onischuk both have a game in hand.
More later, as I will further investigate this mystery!
You can follow the games live on Live games
You may also like to investigate the following site Chesspro However it is in Russian!
The eighth round will start on Wednesday (after the rest day on Tuesday) at 10am (London), 11am (Paris) or 3pm (local time).
