4 decisive games on R3 of the 2022 Tata Steel Tournament, Vidit the sole leader
Day 3 of the 2022 Tata Steel Tournament is over, and GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi is leading with half a point after a fascinating match against GM Daniil Dubov. Esipenko, Van Foreest, and Rapport the other winners of Round 3.
What a game between the Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi, and the Russian GM Daniil Dubov today. Dubov as white sacrificed his central pawn (again!), and aroused a very dangerous position for Black. After many tactical threats, Vidit had to find the only moves in order not to lose, until Dubov lost control of the position and Vidit got the win.
Less interesting was Giri’s game against Mamedyarov, which was the first game to finish in R3 of the Masters. Anish was a pawn up and his position looked promising, but Shakh found an easy way to equalize and achieve a draw.
Rapport on the other hand won his second consecutive game with the brilliant move ...29. Rh1!!, where the white queen cannot capture the rook or black’s queen!
Meanwhile on the fifth board, the World Champion came across a familiar opening, the Anti-Marshall, against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. After a quite conservative game, the two GMs agreed to a draw.
After the match, Carlsen was asked if his next game with the reigning Tata Steel Champion is special for him, and the Norwegian GM responded: “I can’t wait to see what he’s got up his sleeve!
For Round 3 though, Van Foreest had an excellent plan on his sleeves against GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandha. The Dutch GM gave away a pawn to create a very bad pawn structure for his opponent, and with his exceptional technique he managed to bounce back from his R2 loss and win with style!
The 4th decisive game of the day was a Russian story. GM Andrey Esipenko faced GM Sergey Karjakin, and even though the second is well known for his defensive skills, Esipenko dominated the game and forced Karjakin to resign.
The last game of Round 3, Caruana – Shankland ended in a hard-fought draw. Shankland was playing for the win in an objectively equal position, due to his extra pawn, but after 6 hours the game ended in a draw.
Watch R4 with us, on Tuesday the 18th, at 13:00 UTC: https://chessarena.com/broadcasts/11117
