Hansen - Åkesson. Position after 52. Kb5
After four rounds, two players are sharing first place: Tiger Hillarp Persson and Daniel Stellwagen, both having dropped half a point each. They are followed by Lars Bo Hansen, half a point behind the leaders. Even if more than half the tournament remains to be played, it looks as if one of these three will be the eventual winner. Hillarp and Stellwagen face each other in the last round, a game that could be decided who wins the tournament.
Hillarp chose to quickly walk away from the theoretical path against Axel Smith. By playing 1.g3 he instead opted for the kind of positions he has played many times in the past although mostly as Black through his old favourite, the Modern Defence (1.e4 g6). This time he chose a setup named the Hippopotamus but lost some tempos, not choosing the quickest way of getting his knights to e2 and d2. The game was characterised by slow maneouvring, the first exchange only occurred at move 24. Smith looked to be doing quite well, but 28. - Qd6 seemed like an odd choice. However, the big mistake came with 33. - Nb6, letting Hillarp loose on the king side. Instead, 33. - b5 with counterplay on the queenside would have kept the game unclear.
Stellwagen played some risky moves as Black against Lajos Portisch. The Hungarian's play was very forceful at first but 22.Rc5 looked like a blunder after 22. - Ne6. Despite this, there was still a chance to save the game with 25.Ng6+!. A likely continuation would have been 25. - hxg6 26.Bxg6 Bh6 27.Qd7 Bg7 28.Qd1 with repetition of moves. Instead, Portisch played 25.Bg6 but after the strong reply 25. - Bf6 there was nothing to do but to resign the game.
Jan Timman chose an aggressive setup against the Accelerated Dragon employed by Kjetil Lie. The Dutch played continued in style and sacrificed a knight for three pawns as well as keeping the initiative. Lie defended well until the 32nd move when he blundered. When playing 32. - Rf5 he probably missed 35.Qxf8! after which the game was over. Had he played 32. - Nh6 instead with the intention of putting his knight on f7 he would probably had been able to defend.
Lars Bo Hansen quickly got a promising endgame against Ralf Åkesson. Everything looked to be smooth sailing for Hansen but in time-trouble he played some inexact moves and Åkesson obtained counterplay by advancing his king along the h-file. The Danish player chose to force events with 45.b4 (after 45.Kf3, White should be able to win but it is far from easy) and at first Åkesson found the correct defensive play. The decisive mistake came with 52. - Bxf4, missing the strong 58.Qg2! after which White's king is back in time to deliver mate.
Hansen - Åkesson. Position after 52. Kb5
Instead, 52. - Kh5 looks to be a draw.
Evgenij Agrest once again used the Caro-Kann defence. Vasilios Kotronias played the novelty 14.a4 (14.c4 is more common) but Agrest did not have any problems in keeping the balance. In the ensuing double rook endgame, Agrest was probably slightly better due to the pressure against f2 but there were no realistic winning chances.