Tetralogy

Four important events have taken centre stage over the past few weeks. These were tournaments in Shenzen (won by Ding Liren), Zurich (won by Hikaru Nakamura), Karlsruhe (which witnessed a massive triumph for Lev Aronian, who came in ahead of Magnus Carlsen) and Shamkir. In this last, the local matador Shakhriyar Mamedyarov seized the laurels ahead of the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and the current world no. 2 Wesley So. This week, an overview of these four competitions.
 
Aronian–Vachier-Lagrave: Grenke Chess Classic, Karlsruhe 2017
(see diagram 1)
 
Although material is level, Black’s extra queenside pawn is useless. Aronian now finds a way to decisively activate his kingside pawn majority. 36 f5 gxf5 37 Bxh5 fxe4 38 Rxd7+ Kxd7 39 Bxf7 Bg7 40 e6+ Bxe6 41 Bxe6+ Kxe6 42 Kd2 Black resigns Black is helpless against the plan of Bd8, Bxa5, Bb6 and a5 etc.
 
Nakamura–Nepomniachtchi: Korchnoi Tournament, Zurich 2017
(see diagram 2)
 
White has a structural advantage on the queenside and now combines this with a probe against Black’s king to stretch his opponent’s resources to breaking point.