Round 4 in numbers

Put that next to round 3 and the Open has changed character. Decisive games dropped from 78.5% to 70.5%, and White's score is down to 50.9%, which is as close to even as it has been all week. The Women's section moved less: 83.1% decisive in round 3, 81.1% yesterday. Games got about two moves longer in both sections.

The checkmate gap held for a fourth day, 67 to 18. I said after round 3 that I'd stop calling it early, so I'll just say it again: some players finish the job.

The USA had the day of the round. Fabiano Caruana beat Vasyl Ivanchuk in 69 moves, Wesley So beat Anton Korobov in 35 and Levon Aronian beat Roman Dehtiarov in 53, with Hans Niemann's 21-move draw in between. That's 3½–½ against a Ukraine side averaging 2589, a team performance of 2889 and the best of the round. Replay

India beat Spain 3–1 the quiet way. Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin drew, Arjun Erigaisi beat Maksim Chigaev in 36, and Gukesh, on board 4, beat Alexei Shirov in 42. Replay

China lead the Open after beating Serbia 3–1: Wei Yi and Kong Xiangrui won, Ding Liren drew with Alexey Sarana in 50. Uzbekistan, second, got past Türkiye 2½–1½ on Nodirbek Yakubboev's 30-move win, in the quickest match of the day: 115 moves over the four boards, and Abdusattorov and Erdogmus were done in 23. Replay

Vincent Keymer and Jan-Krzysztof Duda played the highest-rated game of the round, 2764 against 2743, and drew it in 69 moves. Alexander Donchenko then won board 4 in 67 and Germany took the match 2½–1½. Replay Armenia got past Argentina on Shant Sargsyan's win, and Faustino Oro, Argentina's board 1, held Haik Martirosyan to a draw. Replay

Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest won for the Netherlands against Greece, and the other two boards ran 92 and 89 moves. France and Romania drew all four boards, and so did Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic. Iran whitewashed Moldova 4–0, with Amin Tabatabaei down to 31 seconds on the clock after move 39 and winning anyway. Replay Michael Adams needed 27 moves for England against Singapore.

In the Women's section the USA lead on 15 points out of 16 after Carissa Yip, Alice Lee and Tatev Abrahamyan all won against Spain, 3½–½. Replay China did the same to Hungary, Zhu Jiner, Song Yuxin and Lu Miaoyi winning, and that was the best team performance of the section. Replay Bulgaria beat Romania 3½–½, Poland beat Vietnam 3–1 with wins from Klaudia Kulon and Monika Socko, and Uzbekistan beat Argentina 3–1. Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova won her game there after declining an en passant capture on move 6, which the site notes and forgives. Replay

India beat Mongolia 3–1. Humpy Koneru and Bat-Erdene Mungunzul played 82 moves for a draw in the highest-rated game of the section, Divya Deshmukh won hers with an en passant capture on move 33, and Savitha Shri won on board 4. Replay Bibisara Assaubayeva beat Lilit Mkrtchian in 35 as Kazakhstan beat Armenia 3–1. Replay And Govhar Beydullayeva's win for Azerbaijan against England came with four pawns side by side on the fourth rank, d4 to g4, on move 21; Jovanka Houska and Khanim Balajayeva drew in 15 in the same match, the shortest draw of the section. Replay

Mads Andersen of Denmark and Tom O'Gorman of Ireland played 119 moves and drew. The endgame began on move 24 and ran for 96 moves, the longest of the round. Andersen gave 13 checks in a row between moves 107 and 119, the most of the round. O'Gorman made 42 king moves, the most of the round, which wins him the Dadbod Shuffler. And 37% of Andersen's moves went backwards, the highest share of the round, which comes with an award called Chicken. Four awards from one game, and they still split the point. Replay

It was board 2 of Ireland against Denmark: all four boards drawn, 293 moves between them, one of two matches to run that long. Denmark gave 51 checks over the four boards, the most of any team, and Ireland made 78 king moves. They earned their draw.

The longest single game was one move longer: Anthony Atanasov of Canada and Endrit Uruci of Kosovo, 120 moves, also drawn. Uruci played 77 of them with under five minutes on the clock, from move 34. Replay

Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis of Greece has a queen that likes to travel. In 37 queen moves it covered 108 squares, the longest journey of the event so far, in a 92-move draw with Loek van Wely. The award is called Sporty Queen. Replay

Professional Edger goes to the player with the highest share of moves on the a- and h-files. GM Jingyao Tin of Singapore played 14 of his 26 moves there, 54%, and drew with Nikita Vitiugov in 27. Replay In the Women's section it went to Sina Tadesse Negi of Ethiopia, 34 of 71 moves on the edge, in the game where she held a draw against a player 410 points above her. More on that one below.

Ali Khalaf of Kuwait castled on move 33, the latest of the round, and lost on move 39. Castle Commitment Issues. Replay At the other end, Mabuza Nkosivile of Eswatini played 7...Kd8 with both queens on the board and castling still available, and Sasha Christina Shariff of Guyana did the same a move later. The Royal Walkabout is for the courage, not the result: both kings went for a walk and neither came back. Replay

Mohammed Al Ryami of Oman walked his king to h3 on move 30 with the queens still on, which is the Short's King Walk of the round. He was mated there on move 31, by Luis Fernando Soliz Gabarrete of Honduras's queen, the fastest mate of the Open. Two awards, one square. Replay

Riccardo Costalonga of Monaco had both rooks on the seventh rank for 12 moves, from 34 to 46, and won in 49. Pigs on the 7th, and this time they ate. Replay

And in the Women's section, Stacy Baptiste-King of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines made 41 king moves, the most of the round. I checked the name twice. Her opponent, Omari Tshibola Sagesse of the DR Congo, promoted to a rook on move 82 in the same game. It was drawn. Replay

The award is exactly what it says: the longest think that ended in a blunder. Juan Pablo De Mey of Aruba spent 32 minutes on 22.Be4, Lichess marked it with two question marks, and he lost. Replay Hayley Nel of South Africa spent 30 minutes on 16.Qd1 in the Women's section, same story. Replay We've all been there.

The longest thinks that went well: Edoardo Di Benedetto of Italy spent 54 minutes on 18...Bb7 and won. Replay Lutopu Khoa of Namibia spent 55 on 15...Ne8 and drew. Replay

Harold Wanyama of Uganda went the other way and won in 56 moves with an hour and 45 minutes still on his clock, the Time Millionaire of the round. Replay Rose Ann Pin-Ag Flores of Cambodia won in 39 with an hour and 42 left. Replay As a team, Nauru finished its games with 57 minutes left on average, and the US Virgin Islands women with 70.

Greece did the opposite. 48% of its moves in the Open were played with under five minutes on the clock, the most of any team. Estonia's women were on 45%. And GM Bobby Cheng of Australia won on the clock: Franc Ashiku of Albania's flag fell after 67...Kf4, the only Open game of the round decided that way. Replay

Timur Daudov of Kyrgyzstan, untitled and rated 2063, beat an IM in round 3. Yesterday he held GM Aksel Bu Kvaloy of Norway, 442 points above him, to a draw. Replay

The biggest win against the odds was Ayden Dirks of Aruba, 1800, over a 2140: an expected score of about 12%. Replay The biggest grandmaster scalp went to IM Pijus Stremavicius of Lithuania, 2362, who beat GM Sasa Martinovic of Croatia, 2553. Replay The Women's GM scalp is a curious one: WFM Anastasiia Hnatyshyn of Ukraine, 2463, beat GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant of Scotland, 2256. The title went one way and the rating the other. Replay

Sina Tadesse Negi of Ethiopia, round 3's giant-killer, had a stranger day still. She was getting mated in six by Daisy Simenda of Zambia, 410 points above her, when Simenda played 57...Kc4 and the evaluation went to +11 for Negi. It ended a draw. The biggest blunder of the round and the biggest upset draw, in one game, along with the edge-of-the-board award from above. Replay

Sri Lanka beat Chile 2½–1½ while giving up 156 rating points a board. The site calls that a Slingshot, the match-sized version of David against Goliath. Ethiopia did it to Zambia in the Women's section, 206 points a board.

En passant was played 46 times across both sections. It was available and left alone 46 times. Balance. The award for leaving it is called Holy Hell, because en passant is forced. Allegedly.

Nicolas Douyere of New Caledonia gave away his queen on move 21, 21.Qxb8?? 21...Nxb8, and won the game. That award is the Botez Gambit. Replay In the Women's section the queen went on move 10, Nsira Gassama of Guinea's 10...Nh5??, against Thamara Sagastegui of Aruba, who spent 62 minutes on one move in round 3 and needed rather less yesterday. Replay

George Anny of Malawi gave a whole rook on move 30, 30...R4c5, and Lichess found nothing wrong with it: a real sacrifice, and the biggest of the round. That's the Brilliant!! award. She lost the game 29 moves later, which is chess for you. Replay

Sixtus Gabriel of Saint Lucia built a Pawn Cube, four pawns in a 2×2 block, on move 11. Replay Il Vaticano, two bishops on one rank with two enemy pawns between them, turned up twice in the Women's section, one of them from Wen Xi Fan of Hong Kong. Replay Both come from r/AnarchyChess, and I'm pleased to report they exist.

Julia Lebel-Arias of Monaco, 82 and the oldest player in either section, lost in 27 yesterday, but not before lining up five pawns on her sixth rank, c6 to g6, which is an award of its own. Replay

Twelve games saw a third queen. Four promotions in the Women's section went to a rook instead, none in the Open. Twenty-one players pushed the f-pawn one square by move 10; the Open ones scored 50%, the Women's ones 42%.

Joy Romany of Egypt played 101 moves against Nadiia Shpanko of Slovenia and lost one centipawn a move on average, 99.6% accuracy, in the cleanest game of either section. Shpanko went the whole game without a single mark from Lichess too. They drew, and I'd have taken that as well. Replay In the Open, Bogdan-Daniel Deac of Romania played at 99.4% against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in a draw that cost the two of them four centipawns in total. Replay

Luke McShane of England went 93 moves without a single mark from Lichess, the longest clean game of the round, and was a pawn up at the end. Zi Han Goh of Singapore, with nothing but his king left, found the stalemate. Half a point each, and Goh gets the Houdini. Replay Alex Bullen of Wales did the same, 11 moves with a bare king from move 92 and a draw at the end of them. Replay

Now the other kind of game. Samuel Lam of Hong Kong had a mate in eleven on the board against Abdulkadir Mohamed Warsame of Somalia, played 60...Ka3, and was suddenly lost by ten pawns. He won anyway. Replay

Tanvi Prasad of Fiji had a forced mate against Julia Muratet Carmona of Andorra, 280 points above her, played 54...Rb5+ instead of the mate in two, and lost. That's the heartbreak of the round and the luckiest escape, in one game. Replay Mohamed Abdou of the Comoros did the Open version, letting a mate in ten go with 35...Ra3 and drawing. Replay

Cristian Tenezaca of Guam was lost by more than ten pawns after 13.Ra2 and won, in a game the evaluation crossed six times. Replay Felicia Ngoua Oyane of Gabon spent 12 moves at least three points down in material, from move 23, and won. Tal's Dark Forest: take your opponent somewhere dark and see who finds the way out. Replay

China leads the Open on 8 match points and 13½ game points, from Uzbekistan on 13 and Armenia and Germany on 12½. Eight teams have won all four matches. In the Women's section the USA lead on 15 game points out of 16, ahead of five teams on 14; ten teams are on four wins.

Four Open matches ended 2–2 with four draws, France against Romania among them; the site calls that a Treaty of Samarkand. There were 16 whitewashes in the Open and 25 in the Women's section, and six teams in the Open and twelve in the Women's section lost on board 1 and won the match anyway.

Aruba and Lebanon each won all four boards in the Women's section, and every one of those eight wins was a checkmate on the board. Hungary's four Open games averaged 97.9% accuracy, the most precise team of the day.

Lichess analyses every finished broadcast game on its own servers, and by the evening 99.9% of Open moves and 99.8% of Women's moves had an evaluation, so the accuracy and blunder numbers are Lichess's, not mine. Relay clocks are chaos, so the script looks for the jump where the 30-minute bonus actually lands instead of trusting move 40. Forfeits and unfinished games never count for move stats, ties are shown instead of broken, and every award links to the exact move.

One thing worth knowing this round: the relay's results fix themselves within hours. At 19:00 yesterday seven boards disagreed with chess-results, the official tables; by 21:45 none did, because Lichess had corrected them. So the numbers here come from the late run, and if you look at the site in the afternoon, look again in the evening. Four games' moves stay out of the statistics because the recorded moves cannot produce the recorded result (one of them ends with White giving check, a move from mate, and scored as a loss); their results count, their moves don't.

Round 5 is being played today, and it's where the leaders meet; the numbers land this evening. Every round gets its own page, there are team standings with the official tie-breaks, and an overview of the whole event tracks the records as they fall. The site is unofficial and not affiliated with FIDE, the organisers or Lichess.

Got an idea for an award? Lichess comments and the r/chess round thread both reach me. One from the round 1 comments already made it in.

And thanks again to the Lichess broadcast team. Without the relay, none of this exists.