Three decisive games led to a six-way tie in Round 3 of the Tata Steel Challengers 2023
After Round 3 of the Tata Steel Challengers 2023 two fresh victors, GMs Velimir Ivic and Javokhir Sindarov, joined the six-way tie in the lead with a 2/3 score, among GMs Alexander Donchenko, Mustafa Yilmaz, Amin Tabatabaei, and Max Warmerdam.
Three decisive games in Round 3 of the Tata Steel Challengers 2023; Mustafa Yilmaz won against Erwin l’Ami who suffered his second loss in a row, Velimir Ivic took down Abhimanyu Mishra in a tense, dynamic battle, and Javokhir Sindarov beat Vaishali Rameshbabu by doubling rooks on the seventh rank in the ending.
The most interesting game of the day was Pechac-Beerdsen, just because it was really unpredictable. “If you gave me 5 guesses I wouldn’t have got that one!” said David Howell of Pechac’s 19...Kd8!?, who later admitted: “During the game I had no clue what was going on, and during the analysis it was the same!”
Even if lots of Pechac’s moves could have been fatal, Beerdsen failed to find the right moves and the game ended in a draw. Let’s see what Beerdsen could have done a few moves before the end:
The winning move was to start with
25.a5!! Bxa5 and then continue as he did in his game with
26.Bxd6 cxd6
27.Nf7+! Qxf7
28.Qxd6+ Qd7
29.Rxe8+ Kxe8
30.Qxb8 Kd8
31.Qf4 Qf5
32.Qxf5 Bxf5 and
33.Rc5, a double attack on the two bishops.
That was almost what happened in the game, with Beerdsen missing the 15.a5!! move, and ending up in a position that there was no double attack!
The marathon game of the day was between the 16-year-old Eline Roebers and Max Warmerdam. “I thought I was playing for the win all the time, but then he had a repetition of moves and he decided to continue, so it was like, ok, maybe I’m not playing for a win, maybe he is!” Eline said at her post-game interview after a 7-hour game which ended in a draw.
In Round 4 Eline Roebers will face the No.1 in rating of the Tournament, Amin Tabatabaei, in what it seems to be a very exciting game, as Eline managed to win against the 2022 Dutch Champion Erwin l’Ami in Round 2, and draw against the 2021 Dutch Champion Max Warmerdam in Round 3.
