Tata Steel Masters 2017 - Round 3

Andreikin today succeeded in holding the Supreme Grinder to a draw, and that's already something to be happy with. Magnus could not find a way to break Andreikin's solid game, and went for a repetition of moves at move 24.

So vs. Rapport was an incredible game. Richard played a very nice game, equalizing with black after the opening. Then he was able to build up a strong attack, with the rooks well coordinated, ready to strike on the kingside to make the Monarch's life miserable. The engines showed that Rapport had a totally won game, when - unfortunately for him - he blundered away the game, with the horrible 33. … Qf7? Wesley So got the upper hand and didn't let the young Hungarian off the hook, winning the game.

Wei Yi won against the super-strong Russian GM Nepomniachtchi. After quite long a game, they entered an ending with Wei maneuvering a rook and a pawn vs. a bishop and a pawn for Nepo. It looked like a drawn game, but Nepo managed to blunder horribly at move 66, giving the young Chinese GM his first victory in the tournament.

Loek Van Wely today had to fight the uber-strong Sergey Karjakin. The Dutch lion went for a difficult game, exchanging his Queen for two rooks. At move 20 Karjakin had a won game on the board, but he could not find the right plan to win on the spot. Despite that, Sergey was able - with the complicity of his opponent - to eliminate all of Loek's pawns, to finish with Queen and two pawns vs. two rooks. A won endgame, that the Russian didn't let slip, even sacrificing his queen for a rook, to close the game in a nice style.

After 3 rounds Eljanov is still in the lead with 2.5 points, followed by a howling pack half a point behind: Carlsen, So, Karjakin, Harikrishna, and Wei Yi.

Tomorrow Round 4 at 7:30 am EST - 13:30 CET

Pairings:
Aronian, L. - Nepomniachtchi, I.
Carlsen, M. - Wei, Y.
Giri, A. - Andreikin, D.
Rapport, R. - Wojtaszek, R.
Van Wely, L. - So, W.
Harikrishna, P. - Karjakin, S.
Adhiban, B. - Eljanov, P.