Results after round 4:
Viswanathan Anand, India (2792) – Anish Giri, Netherland (2776) draw
Vladimir Kramnik, Russia (2760) – Fabiano Caruana, Italy (2839) draw
Hikaru Nakamura, U.S.A. (2767) – Michael Adams, England (2745) 1-0
The most exciting game was definitely that between Nakamura – Adams. After 25 dramatic moves the following quiet position surprisingly arose on the board.
Nakamura,Hikaru (2767) – Adams,Michael (2745)
London Chess Classic (4), 13.12.2014

Does Black have drawing chances?
The readers from my generation who are familiar with the famous game Karpov-Hort, Waddinxween 1979, would say that Black’s chances for a draw are very slim indeed. Karpov managed to win such an endgame even though material were completely equal and a pair of rooks had been exchanged. However Nakamura did not even know about this endgame and thought it was a theoretical draw if a pair of rooks and the a-pawn were removed from the board. However in the game against Adams Nakamura did not really need to show any technical skill. The game continued 26.Rxa5 Kf7 27.g4 Rc8 28.Rb1 Rc2 29.Ra8 Rc4 30.h3

How should Black continue?
30…h5? Now Black’s position deteriorates quickly. Better is 30…Rdc7 and wait for White’s intentions. 31.gxh5 Rh4 32.Rh8 Kf6 33.Kh2 Rd5 34.Rf8+ Ke7 35.Rf3 White’s threat is 36. Rb7+ and g7 falls. This was probably overlooked by Adams. 35…Rf5 36.Rxf5 exf5 37.Rg1 Kf6 38.Rg6+ Kf7 39.Rg5 Kf6 39…f4 40.Rf5+ Ke6 41.Rxf4 Rxh5 42.Ra4 and White has two extra pawns to promote. 40.f4 1-0
Now, have a look at the Karpov-Hort endgame which surely is good to know for practical purposes. This endgame with an isolated e-pawn is much harder to defend compared with when Black has a pawn on f7 and is also relatively common in practice.
Karpov,Anatoly – Hort,Vlastimil
Waddinxveen, 1979

Black to move and lose?
27…Re8 After the more active 27…Kf7 28.Ra3 Ra8 29.Ra6 Ke7 30.f4 Kd7 31.Kf3 Kc7 32.Ke4 Kb7 33.Rxe6 a5 34.Kd3 seems to be winning. The king takes care of the a-pawn and the rook takes care of the Black kingside pawns. The critical line seems to be 27…Ra8! 28.Rxe6 a5 29.Re3 a4 30.Ra3 and the question is if White is winning? 28.Ra3 Re7 29.Ra5! The maximal position for the White rook. The problem with Black’s position is that it is too passive. In rook endings number one rule is activity of rook, king and pawns. Black can only sit and wait in this kind of position. 29…Kf7 30.h4 h6 Now it will be easier for White to create a passed pawn as will be seen after move 34. 31.g4 Kf6 32.f4 Rb7 33.Kf3 Rc7

What is White's general winning plan?
34.Ra6 Immediately 34.h5! is the logical course followed by g5, e4, Kg4, gxh6 and f5 creating a passed pawn on the e-file. 34…g6 35.Ra5 Rd7 36.e3 Rb7 37.h5 g5 37…gxh5 38.Rxh5 Kg7 39.Ra5 and Black’s position is too difficult to defend because of the three pawn weaknesses. 38.Ra6! gxf4 38…Kf7 39.f5! targeting a7, e6 and h6 at the same time. 39.exf4 Rb3+ 40.Kg2 Rb7 41.Kg3 41.f5? would ruin the win after 41…Kg5 41…Kf7 42.Ra4! Kg7 43.g5 The game is decided. 43…Rc7 44.Ra5 Kg8 45.Rb5 Kf7 46.Kg4 a6 47.Rb8 Rc1 48.g6+ Kg7 49.Rb7+ Kf8 50.Rb6 Rg1+ 51.Kf3 Rf1+ 52.Ke4 Re1+ 53.Kd4 Ke7 54.Rxa6 Kf6 55.Ra7 e5+ 56.fxe5+ Rxe5 57.Ra6+ White plays 58.g7 next move so 1-0
Round 5 has the following meetings:
Michael Adams, England (2745) 4 points – Viswanathan Anand, India (2792) 4 points
Anish Giri, Netherland (2776) 6 points – Vladimir Kramnik, Russia (2760) 6 points.
Fabiano Caruana, Italy (2839) 3 points – Hikaru Nakamura, U.S.A. (2767) 5 points
Football scoring is used, with 3 points awarded for a win and 1 point for a draw. This means that all players except Caruana has a theoretical chance of winning. According to Malcolm Pein this is one of the main ideas with this system to make it exciting in the last round, and on a Sunday!
Round 5 will be played 14.00 – 21.00. The games can be followed live at chess24.com with verbal annotations by GM Nigel Short and many other prominent English grandmasters and masters. More information at Londonchessclassic.com
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