Round Four of FIDE World Cup Begins in Baku
It did not do without upsets.
Wednesday, August 9, the first games of Round 4 of the FIDE World Cup finished in Baku. The first symbolic move in the Batsiashvili - Goryachkina game came from Zurab Pataradze, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the Republic of Azerbaijan. The game ended in a draw.
Bella Khotenashvili outplayed Humpy Koneru in what turned out to be the only decisive game of the day in the Women's section. The encounters Injac – Shuvalova, Ju Wenjun – Paehtz, Zhu Jiner – Tan Zhongyi, A. Muzychuk – M.Muzychuk, Roebers – Harika, and Aulia – Salimova were drawn.
The open event gave us an upset on board one as Vincent Keymer defeated Magnus Carlsen with the white pieces. Santosh Vidit won against Etienne Bacrot, Wesley So went down to Alexey Sarana, Ferenc Berkes beat Ruslan Ponomariov, and Nils Grandelius outplayed Jaime Santos Latasa.
The games Gukesh – Esipenko, Svidler – Abasov, Nepomniachtchi – Sarin, Nakamura – Praggnanandhaa, Duda - Maghsoodloo, Robson – Caruana, Ivanchuk – Sanal, Salem – Vocaturo, Wang Hao – Svane, Wojtaszek – Dominguez, and Sindarov – Erigaisi ended in a draw.
Return games of Round 4 are to take place on August 10.
Pictures by Eteri Kublashvili
