Tata Steel Masters, Round 3
Giri wins, catches Firouzja in another bad round for the white pieces.
The early trend continued in round 3 as Black once again went +4, as in round 1 - again, undefeated. An interesting quirk; we’ll see how long it continues.
The most important victory at the moment - though like the string of Black successes (+9 so far for the tournament!) we’ll see if it continues through the end - was Anish Giri’s victory over Alexander Donchenko. It’s one of those games where you might think, if you’re only paying attention to the engine evaluations, that Donchenko was doing just fine until the wheels suddenly came off, but the reality was that he was under pressure for a long time. His kingside was a bit loose, and it meant that his margin for error was limited. An inaccuracy here or there could be overcome, but a point gets reached when one can no longer afford inaccuracies, and that’s what happened to Donchenko. In a precarious position, and possibly in time trouble (it was shortly before the time control on move 40), all the problems with his position proved to be more than he could handle, and he cracked. Giri thus caught up with Alireza Firouzja (who drew a slightly ragged game with Max Warmerdam, with Black) in first place; they each have 2.5 points.
Just half a point behind are two of the day’s other winners. Ding Liren won a wild Giuoco Piano (apparently this isn’t an oxymoron) against Dommaraju Gukesh, complete with opposite-sides castling, terrible pawn structures, and pawn grabs. Gukesh never got into the spirit of the position - his very slow 19.Rd2 was perhaps the most notable error - and Ding kept the petal to the metal all the way to the end, finishing up with a successful king hunt.
Also at 2/3 is Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who beat Parham Maghsoodloo in a wild English (again, not an oxymoron; also again, it featured the players castling on opposite wings) that was full of mistakes. Maghsoodloo’s were the most significant, and Abdusattorov’s attack proved too powerful.
The fourth win was a battle of tail-enders. Jordan Van Foreest got on the board, defeating Ju Wenjun in a Pirc when Ju chose the wrong piece sacrifice.
As for the draws, there were three of them. We already mentioned the Warmerdam-Firouzja game; next, there was Vidit Gujrathi vs. Ian Nepomniachtchi. Nepo was able to press a little - with Black, of course - but not enough to achieve anything against his fellow Candidate. Finally, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa was able to press Wei Yi - with White! - but Black’s fine defense rendered the draw inevitable.
Today’s games, with my notes, are here. Here are the pairings for round 4:
Wei Yi (1.5) - Maghsoodloo (.5)
Ding Liren (2) - Praggnanandhaa (1.5)
Nepomniachtchi (2) - Donchenko (.5)
Firouzja (2.5) - Abdusattorov (2)
Giri (2.5) - Gukesh (1.5)
Van Foreest (1) - Vidit (1.5)
Warmerdam (1.5) - Ju Wenjun (.5)