FM Steve Giddins reports from round 4 of the Blackpool Open

The two overseas GMs took a grip on the event in round four, both winning, to set up a last round clash against each other. Both were in impressive form today, and made no mistake in crushing their opponents in powerful positional style. Poobalasingham's 2.c3 Sicilian saw some early hoovering, with the queens disappearing rapidly, but after that, he was totally outplayed by his GM opponent. Black's bishop pair and mobile kingside pawn majority soon produced a crushing bind.

Blackpool Open (4.1), 09.03.2008

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Be2 cxd4 7.Qxd4 Nc6 8.Qxd5 Nxd5 9.Na3 e5 10.Nc4 f6 11.Ne3 Be6 12.Nxd5 Bxd5 13.Be3 Be7 14.0–0 f5 15.Rfd1 0–0–0 16.Bb5 f4 17.Bxc6 bxc6 18.Bd2 Bf6 19.b3

19...g5 20.Rac1 Rd7 21.Be1 g4 22.Nd2 Rhd8 23.Nb1 Bg5 24.c4 Bxg2 25.Rxd7 Rxd7 26.Nc3 Bf3 27.b4 g3 28.hxg3 Rd6 29.Kf1 fxg3 30.Rc2 g2+ 0–1

Meanwhile, Rausis disposed of Radovanovic with the minimum of difficulty. Black selected a rather passive plan with 9...Rd8 and 11...Nc6, blocking his c-pawn, and then lashed out with the impulsive 19...g5, after which he did not last too many more moves.

Blackpool Open (4.2), 09.03.2008

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.d4 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 0–0 7.e3 Ne4 8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Rc1 Rd8 10.Qc2 Nxc3 11.Qxc3 Nc6 12.a3 a5 13.Be2 Bd7 14.0–0 Be8 15.h3 a4 16.Rfd1 Kf8 17.Ne1 Ra5 18.Nd3 Ra7 19.Bf3 g5 20.e4 dxc4 21.d5 e5 22.Qxc4 Nd4

23.Nxe5 Nb3 24.Qc3 Nxc1 25.Nc6 1–0

The tournament's other remaining GM, Nigel Davies, also won easily. His opponent had the temerity to play the Modern Defence, an opening on which Davies is a renowned expert, and has recently recorded a couple of outstanding DVDs for Chessbase. The effortless manner in which he won was noteworthy for the non-standard recapture at move 19 - the open b-file and enhanced grip on d5 matters more than the doubled pawns:

Blackpool Open (4.5), 09.03.2008

1.Nf3 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.d4 d6 4.c3 Nf6 5.Bd3 0–0 6.0–0 e6 7.Re1 Nc6 8.Na3 e5 9.dxe5 dxe5 10.Nc4 Ne8 11.b3 f6 12.a4 a5 13.Qc2 Be6 14.Ne3 Nd6 15.Ba3 Rf7 16.Bxd6 Qxd6 17.Red1 Qc5 18.Bc4 Bxc4

19.bxc4 Rd8 20.Rd5 Qe7 21.Qb3 b6 22.Rad1 h5 23.Qb5 Rxd5 24.cxd5 Nb8 25.d6 cxd6 26.Qxb6 Qc7 27.Rxd6 Qxb6 28.Rxb6 Nd7 29.Rb5 Bf8 30.Rxa5 Nc5 31.Nd2 Rd7 32.Nd5 Kf7 33.Kf1 Ke6 34.Ke2 f5 35.f3 Rb7 36.Rb5 1–0

There were also important wins for Don Mason, David Eggleston and Alan Walton, all of whom enter the last round with an excellent chance of a major prize. The last round pairings see the match-ups Dgebuadze-Rausis, Mason-Eggleston and Walton-Davies. It is not clear that any of these players can be really satisfied with a draw, so expect some blood on the board, here at Blackpool this afternoon!