Reggio Emilia Chess Tournament R4: Vallejo-Pons keeps lead

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi Everybody,

GM Francisco Vallejo Pons leads at the 53rd Reggio Emilia Masters Chess Tournament in Italy. The tournament is running from December 28, 2010 to January 6th, 2011. The Spanish grandmaster is 1.5 points ahead of the rest of the field after only four rounds.

January 1, 2011 was to be a rest day but the Morozevich-Navara game was played. The game had been rescheduled after the Russian grandmaster had been unable to reach at the start of the tournament because of the snow in Europe. Morozevich won the game.

Standings after 4 rounds

1.	Vallejo Pons, Francisco	g	ESP	2698	3½
2.	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2764	2
3.	Movsesian, Sergei	g	SVK	2721	2
4.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2709	2
5.	Onischuk, Alexander	g	USA	2683	2
6.	Short, Nigel	g	ENG	2680	2
7.	Gashimov, Vugar	g	AZE	2733	2
8.	Morozevich, Alexander	g	RUS	2700	2
9.	Navara, David	g	CZE	2708	1½
10.	Godena, Michele	g	ITA	2549	1

Here is the nice game between Morozevich and Navara. You can run the moves in our pgnplayer or watch in flash below.

PGN: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 Bd6 9. O-O O-O 10. Qc2 Bb7 11. a3 a6 12. b4 a5 13. Rb1 axb4 14. axb4 Qe7 15. e4 e5 16. Ne2 Bxb4 17. Ng3 g6 18. dxe5 Ng4 19. Bg5 Qc5 20. e6 fxe6 21. Qb3 Nde5 22. Qxe6+ Rf7 23. Nxe5 Nxe5 24. Be2 Bc8 25. Qb3 Bc3 26. Be3 Qa3 27. f4 Ng4 28. Qxa3 Rxa3 29. Bc5 Ra4 30. Rbd1 Ba5 31. Rd6 Nf6 32. Bd1 Nxe4 33. Nxe4 Rxe4 34. Bb3 Rc4 35. Bxc4 bxc4 36. Ra1 Bc7 37. Ra8 Bxd6 38. Bxd6 1-0
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(Left) GM Alexander Morozevich. See more great photos of the Russian grandmaster at www.chesspics.com.
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