2016 Candidates Moscow 10-29 March

[NickFaulks]

Not my idea of good chess to watch or, if I could do it, to play.

Are we allowed to talk about the games after they've finished or do we have to wait for the round to finish?

[IM Jack Rudd]

I'm perfectly happy for you to talk about the games after they've finished, or even while they're in progress.

[MJMcCready]

Naka-Giri drawn. Crazy.

[NickFaulks]

I'm perfectly happy for you to talk about the games after they've finished, or even while they're in progress.

That's helpful and appreciated but I was actually asking, in theory.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I am not a lawyer, but I'm pretty certain Agon's "ban" has no legal force.

[JustinHorton]

David Smerdon was going to liveblog round four but it's not clear to me whether or not he is actually doing so.

[Roger de Coverly]

David Smerdon was going to liveblog round four but it's not clear to me whether or not he is actually doing so.

He's recommending that people follow the game from the nrk site, which seems to be operating again. The problem, as Geoff Chandler would point out, is that without a game score and memory of watching the games unfold, it can be difficult to make sense of the comments.

The nrk link is http://www.nrk.no/sport/sjakk/

[IM Jack Rudd]

[White "Nakamura"] [Black "Giri"] 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Be2 O-O 8.O-O dxc4 9.Bxc4 b5 10.Be2 Bb7 11.e4 e5 12.dxe5 Nxe5 13.Nd4 Neg4 14.g3 Re8 15.Nf5 Bc5 16.Bf4 Qb6 17.Kg2 g6 18.h3 Ne5 19.Nh6+ Kg7 20.Bg5 Bd4 21.Bxf6+ Kxf6 22.f4 Nc4 23.Bxc4 bxc4 24.f5 c5 25.fxg6+ Kxg6 26.Nxf7 Rf8 27.Nd5 Qxb2 28.Ne7+ Kg7 29.Nf5+ Kg6 30.Ne7+ Kg7 31.Nf5+ Kg6 1/2-1/2

[NickFaulks]

David Smerdon was going to liveblog round four but it's not clear to me whether or not he is actually doing so.

Looks like serious blogging to me.

[Mick Norris]

Svidler draws with Aronian - that's 2 games running he has been better but not managed to convert it into a win, bit early for conclusions I know, but maybe he has missed his chance

[NickFaulks]

Topalov's given up his d6 pawn. He must have really hated his position, but I don't see how this improves it.

[Mick Norris]

Karjakin beats Anand to take the sole lead

Topalov appears to have made another mistake in the run up to the time control and looks to be in trouble again - it looked to me like Caruana's plan was to wait for a mistake, and it had worked

[MartinCarpenter]

That's basically how most of the top players seem to be going - you can see from Nakumura's games vs Svidler and Giri that trying to catch people out playing principled chess isn't at all easy!

So they play some really quite slow stuff to try and make sure there's a position to use later on in the game. Or plain odd things like Karjakin did, although he did later switch back to very classical play. I guess h4 pretty much justified itself by provoking f5

[NickFaulks]

But Caruana's 41st, played quickly, looks like a big mistake. Topalov now has counterplay, at least.

Caruana thinking hard about move 42!

[JustinHorton]

What do you reckon he was thinking of? I don't understand 41. R1b5 at all.