Unfortunately, Nisipeanu's fate looks to be a very disappointing placing - after an excellent draw with Black against Kramnik to start the tournament, today made his third defeat in a row. Today he went against Giri with the White pieces, and a classically inclined Be2 Najdorf appeared. Nisipeanu chose a slightly offbeat Bg5 set up, and two pairs of minor pieces were quickly Hoovered from the board. Nisipeanu chose the tempting but slightly inaccurate 14. Bg4?! - though this deprived Black of the right to castle, this was outweighed by the misplaced bishop being slightly trapped on h3. Nisipeanu got queens off the board, but this did not solve his misplaced minor pieces. Giri opened up lines on the queenside and developed some pressure, and Nisipeanu allowed a very unfavourable structure change with 30. Rd5? - Giri's knight jumped into the fray, and White's position collapsed in due order. We've all had nightmare tournaments, and I hope Nisipeanu is able to find some stability and find his bearings.
The game Meier-Kovalev featured Meier's typical Catalan, and Black experienced no difficulties at all - after 17...c5, pieces were very quickly traded off into a bishop ending. Even with Black's pawns being on dark squares, there were no hopes of White rustling up winning chances, and the players found a repetition by the time control.
Wojtaszek-Nepomniachtchi was a fascinating game featuring a sort of Baltic Queen's Gambit - the game briefly followed a Gelfand-Nepo game from two weeks ago. The opening ended with a position that would make Tarrasch's head explode with rage and scornful correspondence - Wojtaszek established a pawn centre of c4-d4-e4-f4 with no Black pawns in the centre at all, yet Black had a perfectly acceptable position! It's not clear if Wojtaszek missed any real chances to make something of his space edge, but it's clear that he drifted - Nepo established an effective blockade and stopped White's only central break and achieved his own kingside break with ...g5. The final position of the game featured dangerous kingside play for Nepo, and he very easily could have played on and pressed with zero risk - it's slightly curious that he didn't at least play on a bit.
But the real centerpiece of this round was Kramnik-Duda - going in to this round, Duda led the field by half a point, and Kramnik was a full point behind. Kramnik chose the English Four Knights to test the young super GM, and play avoided the super sharp and well analyzed lines for a more technical position. Kramnik, after 12. Bg5, seemed to be fairly comfortable - two bishop, central pressure, open queenside lines for play. However, Kramnik made a slightly surprising decision to trade off his bishop pair to win a fairly lacklustre pawn - Duda was able to reach a heavy piece late middlegame with good counterplay, with a very strong rook on c2. However, the key moment of the game came with 22...Rc8? - this deprived Black of said counterplay and allowed Kramnik to maintain his queen and rook deep in Black's position. Duda felt that trading queens was mandatory, and this resulted in a rook ending where White's rook on the 7th dominated proceedings. Kramnik made no missteps and finished off the game with crisp technique, which is completely in character - of world champions, I would say Kramnik most likely has the very best endgame technique (outside maaaaaaaaybe Smyslov, though my admiration of Kramnik colors my judgment).
With Kramnik's very consequential win, we go into the second rest day with a four way tie for 1st between Duda, Kramnik, Nepomniachtchi, and Kovalev. Round 5 features a consequential game between Nepo and Kramnik, while Kovalev seems to have a favourable pairing of White against the struggling Nisipeanu. Duda will take the White pieces and attempt the break the drawing machine Meier, while Giri and Wojtaszek will lock horns and fight to move up into the struggle for 1st. We'll see you then!