London Chess Classic 2015 - Round 3 Recap

Opening: B90: Sicilian: Najdorf, Adams attack

Player(s): Vachier-Lagrave, Topalov

IM Christof Sielecki recaps Round 3. Third draw for most of the super GMs playing in London, and second loss for Topalov, today victim of the ever raising French star Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who joins Giri on top after three rounds. Carlsen and Anand played a riveting game, with Magnus going for an unusual line of the Berlin defense, with 11. ...Bb5. The two champions played well all through the game, to make some minor imprecisions toward the end. Anand kept shuffling his pieces in the ending, not being able to find a convincing plan, whereas Magnus played an incomprehensible move when he had his chance to get some advantage. Draw seemed a fair result after the struggle. The all-American derby was another interesting battle, with Caruana up a pawn and Nakamura defending fiercely, again in a Berlin defense. Adams vs. Aronian was a quiet and rather uneventful game. Grischuk is probably disappointed about his game: he had an advantage but wasn't able to convert it to a full point, mostly because the strong Russian thought for 70 minutes on a single move, diving into time trouble. On a lighter note, it's almost impossible not to notice that every tournament has its own fetish opening. Berlin in London this time, which sounds like an oximoron. Renaming this great event The Berlin Chess Classic might not be appropriate, but it's tempting. Tomorrow Round 4 starts at 11AM EST. Pairings: Giri-Aronian, Carlsen-Adams, Nakamura-Anand, Topalov-Caruana, Grischuk-MVL.