The tournament finally woke up, despite two more Italian Games (though only one Giuoco). There were two wins - doubling the total of the first two rounds combined - and all five games could easily have finished with a winner.
Alireza Firouzja was the only player with a win coming into the round, and he was fortunate to finish the round still tied for first. He had White against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and while the position out of the opening (a spicy London System) was equal, he briefly enjoyed a significant advantage. Finding the right 22nd move wasn’t easy, and after his mistake MVL turned the tables, obtaining a clear plus that soon turned into a decisive advantage. The position remained complicated - ultimately too complicated for the Frenchman with three names, and he just couldn’t figure out how to win. In the end, with an advantage that remained decisive, he allowed a repetition. Remarkably, if I heard the commentators correctly, this was MVL’s 22nd straight classical game without a win.
This allowed Ian Nepomniachtchi to catch up with Firouzja in first. Nepo played an exceptionally wild version of the Saemisch against Anish Giri’s Nimzo-Indian, and while Giri had the advantage or equality most of the way, his defensive task was very difficult. Moves 23 and 24 proved decisive. Giri’s 23rd move left him with an objectively lost position, but the best 24th moves available to him would have made Nepo’s task too difficult for flesh-and-blood to solve. Giri’s 24th move wasn’t really worse than the best alternatives, except in that White’s job was a bit easier. Nepo saw everything to the end, which came 13 moves later, and finished off an impressive victory in style.
The day’s other winner was Fabiano Caruana, who won an up-and-down game with Nodirbek Abdusattorov to get back to 50%. First Caruana was better, then Abdusattorov was better, and then Caruana started to take over again. Still, Caruana’s edge would have remained relatively small against 42…Re8 or 42…Nd7; instead, 42…Kg8? 43.Kg3! was already hopeless for Black.
The other two games, featuring the World Champion and his Challenger, finished peacefully - but weren’t peaceful along the way. Ding Liren built up a beautiful attack against Wesley So, but 24.gxf3 was a big mistake. It kept a pretty pawn structure, but 24.Nxf3 followed by 25.e5 rips open lines for a winning attack. As for Gukesh, he erred against Praggnanandhaa to reach a lost ending, but Pragg failed to convert the advantage.
A very good round! Here are the games, with my comments.