75th Tata Steel Chess 2013 Round 3: Carlsen, Anand, Karjakin Score

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

Finally, the third round of the 75th Tata Steel Chess 2013 saw some major fireworks. Three games were decisive with wins by Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Sergey Karjakin. Here is the official report. In sole lead is Russia's Sergey Karjakin after beating Wang Hao of China. The Chinese grandmaster equalized comfortably on the Black side of a Petroff Defence, and could even claim a small advantage after some 20 moves. However, Wang Hao soon lost the thread of the game in a rook endgame allowing Karjakin to collect the full point and take the lead in the tournament with 2,5 out of 3. You can view the game and a post-game video with Chess King.

The first player to finish his game was top favorite Magnus Carlsen. His clock barely showed less time than he started with, indicating an effortless victory. It was indeed more his opponent Loek van Wely's doing, who mixed up two variations in an old line of the Averbakh King's Indian early on, ending up in an endgame that offered little chances of survival. The Dutchman resigned when the loss of a pawn signaled the collapse of his position. You can see the game and post-game comment by Magnus Carlsen with Chess King.

The World Number One was joined at 2 out of 3 by World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who beat Fabiano Caruana in an exemplary Ruy Lopez. With small maneuvers – from controlling square d5, to dominating the c-file – the Indian chess wizard kept nagging the young Italian who drifted into time trouble. You can watch a post-game video and the game with Chess King. The remaining four games ended in rather uneventful draws. 

In Grandmaster Group B Sergey Tiviakov had to settle for a draw against Jan Timman and was joined in the lead by Richard Rapport. The Hungarian had no compassion with Holland's Sipke Ernst who recorded his third loss, this time on the White side of a sharp Benoni. In Group C, the leaders Sabino Brunello and Fernando Peralta drew their mutual game allowing Hjorvarr Stein Gretarsson of Iceland and Brazil's Krikor Mekhitarian to catch up with them.

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