Nine players in front

Written by Georgios Souleidis on 15 April 2017.

It was clear from the beginning of the fourth round that the GRENKE Open is one of the toughest chess tournaments in the world. Several players made the decision to agree on quick draws in order to save their strength for coming games. Among them were Andrey Sumets and Nikita Vitiugov, who had already finished their game before other players entered the room. Of course battles were also fought in the main field, and nine strong title holders will continue further in the tournament after the first four rounds. Among them is the Swedish Nils Grandelius pictured below.

Maxim Matlakov, Richard Rapport and Alexander Moiseenko, three of the absolute tournament favorites, remain at the top. While Matlakov and Rapport had an easy game, Moiseenko needed a good four hours to force Serb Dusan Popovic to his knees. Also included among the nine tournament leaders is German Rasmus Svane. In addition to seven Grandmasters, two international masters have played in the top group. Meilis Annaberdiev (Turkmenistan) and Thai Dai Van Nguyen (Czech Republic) are two "exotics". Annaberdiev was convincing in the fourth round with a smooth victory against Sebastian Bogner.

Big surprises were also absent in the fourth round. While some title holders had to work hard for their draw, defeats remained rare. Among the favorites are Etienne Bacrot and Gata Kamsky, both of whom accepted their second draw in the 4th round.