Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the People’s Republic of China,
H.E. Mr. Armen SARGSYAN and President of the Chinese Chess Association and FIDE Vice President, Mr. Yang Junan
(photo: official World Mind Games photographer, Vianney Thibaut)

The Chinese were leading the pack with 2.5 out of three rounds but, perhaps having White helped as well, as Wang Hao won the game against his compatriot. Wang Hao is now leading the tournament alone with 3.5/4, trailed by half a point by the Russian GM Alexander Grischuk.

Ranking after Round 4: Men

Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	Res.
1	14	GM	Wang Hao	2719	CHN	3½	0
2	1	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2828	RUS	3	0
3	2	GM	Aronian Levon	2813	ARM	2½	0
4	7	GM	Wang Yue	2765	CHN	2½	0
5	9	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2739	AZE	2½	0
6	6	GM	Leko Peter	2773	HUN	2	0
7	10	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2738	UKR	2	0
8	8	GM	Dominguez Perez Leinier	2763	CUB	2	0
9	3	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2811	UKR	2	0
10	12	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2728	FRA	2	0
11	15	GM	Harikrishna P.	2701	IND	2	0
12	16	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	2684	POL	1½	½
13	4	GM	Nepomniachtchi Ian	2801	RUS	1½	½
14	13	GM	Gelfand Boris	2719	ISR	1	0
15	11	GM	Bacrot Etienne	2731	FRA	1	0
16	5	GM	Radjabov Teimour	2776	AZE	1	0

Relaxing, interested in the other games, blowing off steam, trying to confuse the opponents?
What is sure though is that many GMs like to stroll during the game

In the crucial encounter in the Women section, the game to decide the leader after 4 rounds was - Valentina Gunina vs Nana Dzagnidze. Unlike in the men section, in the women one Black prevailed over White and the Georgian grandmaster won her game, leading alone as well, with a collection of 3.5/4.

Ranking after Round 4: Women

Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	Res.
1	7	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2547	GEO	3½	0
2	2	GM	Hou Yifan	2600	CHN	3	0
3	9	GM	Kosintseva Tatiana	2505	RUS	2½	0
	11	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	2485	GER	2½	0
5	10	GM	Ushenina Anna	2489	UKR	2½	0
6	6	GM	Gunina Valentina	2552	RUS	2½	0
7	8	GM	Muzychuk Anna	2546	UKR	2½	0
8	12	GM	Zhao Xue	2485	CHN	2½	0
9	3	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2578	BUL	2	0
10	16	GM	Khotenashvili Bela	2407	GEO	1½	0
11	4	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2577	RUS	1½	0
12	15	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2421	IND	1½	0
13	5	GM	Ju Wenjun	2555	CHN	1½	0
14	1	GM	Koneru Humpy	2611	IND	1	0
15	14	GM	Cramling Pia	2443	SWE	1	0
16	13	IM	Muzychuk Mariya	2445	UKR	½	0

 

Valentina Gunina - Nana Dzagnidze

Even at the highest level and especially under severe time troubles, small tactics play a big role. White's position wouldn't be that bad were it not for:


28... Bxb4! winning a crucial pawn as: 29. cxb4 Rxc2 30. Qxc2 Qxd4+ wins back the piece. Nana didn't let her opponent back in the game and is now enjoying the sole lead after the first four rounds.
0-1



But the leader after four rounds in the women section, Nana Dzagnidze, had many hardfought games and a good example would be her win versus Mariya Muzychuk.

Mariya Muzychuk - Nana Dzagnidze 


29. a3?! (After the prophylactic 29. g4-stopping Black's next move - the game would most probably have ended in a draw.)
29... f5! 30. Rg1 Kf6
Suddenly the position is very unpleasant. The king is coming to g5, threatening the h-pawn, and Black is also in command of the e-file.

31. Rh1 Kg5 32. a4 Re4 33. a5 Re7 34. b3 Re4 35. b4 a6! Zugzwang, a king-move allows the black rook to enter while a rook moves does the same, or loses the h-pawn.

36. Rg1 Kxh5 37. Rh1+ Kg5 38. Rg1 h5 39. Rh1 f4 40. Rg1 fxg3 41. fxg3 f5 42. Rh1 f4 and Black continued to convert her extra pawn.
0-1

   

Ju Wenjun and Pia Cramling are looking forward to a better day tomorrow

The reigning women World champion Hou Yifan was not particularly happy with her "slow start" with two draws, but in the third round scored her first win against the experimented Pia Cramling and she continued the good streak with another victory in R4 over Antoaneta Stefanova.
Things have gone badly so far for Hou Yifan's former opponent in the World title match and the highest rates player in the Women Rapid rating list, Koneru Humpy, who had "castled long" so far - unfortunately, this didn't happen on the chess board, but in the score table: 0-0-0...Round four though was the breach in the ice and Humpy turned things around by winning her first game in this competition against Mariya Muzychuk. 

The interesting thing about rapidplay is that players tend to be somewhat more experimental in their approach to the openings. Perhaps the most striking example was the game between Harikrishna and Ivanchuk of round 4 - The placement of the Black king and queen after ten moves was rather puzzling for the human eye. It looked as if Their Majesties had been set on the wrong squares; in the inițial position: doesn't the Queen belong on the square of her own colour? What actually happened is that the K and Q "castled artificially" during the fierce opening fight:

Pentala Harikrishna - Vssily Ivanchuk

1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 h6 3.Bh4 g5 4.e3
Saving the bishop by threatening mate on h5.

4...Nf6 5.Be2
Renewing the threat. Ivanchuk replies with the most creative answer!





5...d6 inviting to 6.Bh5+ Kd7
As beginners, we learn that the king does not belong in the middle of the board. This is one of those many exceptions. Black is going to gain the bishop pair while it is hard for White to make use of the 'wandering' king.

7.Bg3 Nxh5 8.Qxh5 Qe8 9.Qe2 Kd8!


It is as if somebody didn't set up the pieces correctly when the clocks were started!

10.Nc3 Nd7 11.h4 g4 12.e4 fxe4 13.Nxe4 Nf6 14.Nxf6 exf6 15.0–0–0 h5 And after the queen went off...

16.Qxe8+ Kxe8 ...the players soon split the point.


Four draws for Pentala Harikrishna in Day 1 of Rapid

½–½

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