Praggnanandhaa leads Tata Steel Masters after four rounds - 4
It is still very early days of the Tata Steel tournament and Praggnanandhaa has started well before only to fall away. Today he had white against Leon Luke Mendonca, the lowest rated player in the tournament and clearly struggling. Praggnanandhaa had a serious advantage by move 16 and was clearly winning by move 27. Joint leader Abdusattorov had a chance to be much better with 15.c5! instead 15.Bf4? left Wei Yi pressing for a few moves but by move 24 the game was equal and drawn on move 35.
Arjun Erigaisi was one of the pre-event favourites but everything is going wrong. Today he was winning against Fedoseev after 21.Rg5!, first of all he messed up the win with 26.Bxf5?! and then with 27.Nxf5?? he was lost. Pentala Harikrishna was gifted a win 21...Kg6? lost pretty much on the spot, 21...Ke8 was equal.
Caruana-Giri, Sarana-Gukesh and Keymer-Van Foreest were all drawn.
The rounds keep coming and Round 5 is tomorrow before finally the players get a rest day.
Masters Round 4 Standings: 1st Praggnanandhaa 3.5pts, 2nd Abdusattorov 3pts, 3rd= Gukesh, Caruana, Fedoseev, Keymer, Harikrishna 2.5pts, 8th= Wei Yi, Sarana 2pts, 10= Van Foreest, Giri 1.5pts, 12th Warmerdam 1pt, 13= Mendonca, Erigaisi 0.5pts.
Round 5 Jan 22 at 13.00 GMT Mendonca vs Erigaisi, Warmerdam vs Praggnanandhaa, Wei vs Harikrishna, Van Foreest vs Abdusattorov, Gukesh vs Keymer, Giri vs Sarana and Fedoseev vs Caruana,.
Challengers Round 4 Standings: 1st= Lu, L'Ami, Nguyen 3pts, 4th= Suleymanli, Bok, Vaishali 2.5pts, 7th= Nogerbek, Svane, Gurel 2pts, 10th= Yakubboev, Divya 1.5pts, 12th= Pijpers, Oro 1pt, 14th Bulmaga 0.5pts.
Round 5 Jan 22 at 13.00 GMT Suleymanli vs Yakubboev, Gurel vs Nguyen, L'Ami vs Divya, Oro vs Pijpers, Lu vs Bok, Nogerbek vs Bulmaga and Vaishali vs Svane.