Round 4 of FIDE World Cup Begins in Khanty-Mansiysk
Four games ended decisively.
The encounters of the FIDE World Cup resumed after a day off in the Ugra Chess Academy on September 20. Curiously, all victories of the day were achieved with White.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Peter Svidler. White got a comfortable game in the opening and won a pawn in the middlegame. Approaching the control move, Black, being in a difficult position, sacrificed a piece, but did not manage to get any compensation, as Vachier-Lagrave found the most accurate defensive moves. The Russian resigned on the 42nd move.
Jan-Krzysztof Duda had White against Jeffrey Xiong. Soon after the opening Duda captured a poisoned pawn, missing a strong reply of his opponent, and ended up an exchange down. However, in the subsequent game the American first allowed White to achieve a dynamic equality, and then made a fatal mistake on the 34th move. Duda capitalized on it, got an overwhelming advantage and won the game.
Nikita Vitiugov outplayed Welsey So in an attractive positional style. The Russian was slowly increasing the pressure and ended up with a dangerous passed pawn on b7. Black managed to block the pawn, but it cost him two pawns. So defended tenaciously, but on the 58th move his king got caught into a mating net. Black resigned on the 60th move.
In the longest game of the day, Alexander Grischuk defeated Lenier Dominguez. The Russian outplayed his opponent in a dry ending with rooks and opposite-colored bishops, and won a pawn. Black retained good drawing chances after the rooks were exchanged, however, being under the strong time pressure, Dominguez committed a fatal mistake and lost.
Four games ended peacefully: Le Quang Liem-Aronian, Mamedyarov-Radjabov, Nepomniachtchi-Yu Yangyi, and Ding Liren-Alekseenko.
The return games with the colours reversed will be played on Saturday, September 21.
