Sinquefield Cup R4: Leinier scores a magnificent win over MVL
Leinier Dominguez Perez scored his second victory of the event, against one of the tournament leaders - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the fourth round of Sinquefield Cup 2021. The American's win is definitely a strong contender for the brilliancy prize worth US$ 5000. Svidler's woes continued as he lost his third game of the event, this time against Rapport who employed his trusty secret weapon 1.g3. Shankland and Swiercz scored their first victory of the event against Mamedyarov and Xiong respectively. So and Caruana drew their games against each other. They are now joined by Leinier in a three-way lead, 3.0/4. Round 5 starts tonight from 1:30 a.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
Four wins for white again
The fourth round had four decisive games, just like the previous round. The only draw to take place was between Caruana and So.
Shankland - Mamedyarov: 1-0
Shankland capitalized on Mamedyarov's mistake in the endgame.
White already had an edge. 32...Rxb2 only made White's advantage more decisive as 33.Nxc6+ Ka8 34.Ne5 and Black loses some more important pawns. Rest was just a matter of technique, and Shankland converted it without any difficulty.
Rapport - Svidler: 1-0
Rapport started the game with 1.g3. Until this game, according to Mega Database, Rapport had employed 1.g3 ten times, having a score of +8 -2 and zero draws. His most recent win was against Radjabov in a blitz game in Paris Rapid and Blitz Grand Chess Tour 2021.
White has enough compensation after 25...g3. Black needed to play 25...Be7 26.Nxg4 Kg7 to make way for the rook to claim the open h-file. Things very quickly went haywire for Black. 26.Ng4 Bg7 27.Bh3 Qb6 28.Qd3 c5 29.Rb1 Qc7 30.f5 and White has gained a substantial advantage.
Leinier - Vachier-Lagrave: 1-0
Leinier scored a fantastic win over Vachier-Lagrave.
White already has a decisive advantage. The move of the game and perhaps the day occurred in the above position. Give it a thought and try to find out.
Swiercz - Xiong: 1-0
Dariusz Swiercz got himself in a commanding position in the middlegame.
The game continued 24.Nc3 but there was an interesting alternative. What is it?
32.Ra5 would have finished the game much earlier.
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