Tata Steel 2016 - Video Recap - Round 3

Opening: D97: Grunfeld: Russian (Alekhine) variation

Player(s): Navara, Giri

GM Joel Benjamin recaps Round 3. Horrible blunders, missed opportunities and whatnot happened in the third round of the Tata Steel. Despite we had only two decisive games out of seven, today's was the most exciting round so far. Wei Yi and Carlsen played their first game ever, and obviously everyone wanted to see the former and current wunderkinds play each other. The game didn't provide much excitement though, and ended in a draw. Caruana and Adams was a long maneuvering game, with Caruana putting on the table more stamina, which allowed him to take home the full point. Very technical game in the Chinese derby, with Ding and Hou entering an early endgame, where not much happened. Mamedyarov played a very good game against Eljanov, reaching a winning position two pawns ahead, sailing happily towards the full point. Only, he forgot about his rook leaving it en-prise, blundering in a way you seldom see at this level. Mame resigned immediately after Eljanov - no doubt surprised about what he saw on the board - joyously munched the stranded tower. Navara vs. Giri was the most exciting game of the round. Navara played a fantastic sacrifice, making the game theoretically important. The opening was a Grunfeld, Russian variation. After 19 moves of theory, Navara invented the brilliant 20.f5! and sacrificed a rook the next move, to pry open Giri's kingside. The game exploded into a tactical mayhem. Giri was able to avoid immediate catastrophe, but Navara forced him into a lost position - at least according to the engines. Unfortunately for the Czech ace, he wasn't able to convert the advantage and faltered - probably worried about his clock - allowing Giri to draw and save the day. With today's win, Caruana is now in the sole lead; half a point behind So and Ding. A whole point behind the leader a pack of 8 players with 50%. Tata Steel is a very long tournament - 13 rounds - so nothing is decided yet. For sure, Fabiano is off with a great start, and we all know what he can do when he's able to pull a "Caruana" off the hat!