FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: Caruana, Wang Hao Still Perfect

Both Fabiano Caruana (U.S.) and Wang Hao (China) won their third game at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. As the only players on 3/3, they will play each other on Sunday.

It was Wang who grabbed the lead first. After his game with his compatriot Bu Xiangzhi, Wang revealed that normally he and his opponent take a short draw at tournaments. It was a remarkable statement to make, not because it's uncommon, but because chess players rarely speak about it.

This time Wang played for a win, and it paid off.

"Here I decided to play because, OK, first I was White and second, it's the wrong [strategy]. It's very early; it's better to make some performance," he said.

The game saw the incredibly popular Giuoco Pianissimo where initially Bu was fine. As Wang pointed out, his opponent's mistake was 14...Ne5?, made because he had missed White's quiet but venomous 16.Be2 in combination with 17.c4, after which Black cannot avoid the loss of material.

Wang Hao showed his game in the live broadcast. 

For a long time it seemed that Wang was going to be the sole leader after today's round, but at the end of the day Caruana joined him in first place. The American grandmaster did so by tricking Alexey Shirov deep in the game.

The Latvian-Spanish veteran GM, who was the world number-two as early as 1994 (two years after his opponent was born), took some time to think about his third move. Eventually he went into a theoretical line of the Sicilian Najdorf.

Shirov had played the position after 13...Nh5 in earlier games, and also Caruana himself had played it as White.

In a sharp middlegame Caruana missed a big chance when Shirov held the balance for a long time. After many hours of good defense, he stumbled after all—although perhaps he resigned a tad too early, as GM David Smerdon argued.

It was another hard-fought round among many opponents of close to equal strength. This time nine of the top 20 boards saw decisive results.

Magnus Carlsen, who needed a bit of work yesterday to draw with Alexey Sarana, dropped another half point. In a game between world champions, the Norwegian had some chances against 2004 Tripoli winner Rustam Kasimdzhanov, but the latter played a solid game.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen and former FIDE world Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov analyze their fighting draw in round three at #iomchess pic.twitter.com/ACdZTdO54R

— iomchess (@iomchess) 12 October 2019

Of the 154 participants, only Caruana and Wang have started with three wins. Below the two leaders are 10 players on 2.5 points. 

Baskaran Adhibaban had started with 2/2 and drew today, while the rest are players who had been on 1.5 points and won today: Nikita Vitiugov, Vidit Gujrathi, Alexander Grischuk, Gabriel Sargissian, Ivan Cheparinov, Vladimir Fedoseev, Luke McShane, Kirill Alekseenko and Parham Maghsoodloo.

Of these players McShane won the most exciting game, and commentator Daniel King right away called it the Game of the Day.

The English GM played a lovely attacking game as Black against, we have it again, a Giuoco Pianissimo. Behind the white pieces was Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, the second Vietnamese player behind Le Quang Liem, who also is playing in the tournament.

Pushing his g- and h-pawns up the board early was "a rush of blood to the head" more than preparation, McShane admitted afterward. He was pleased with the game and rightly so.

It seems that he was inspired by one of his heroes. As McShane said: "At some point I asked myself: 'What would Kramnik play?'"

McShane reviewed his game in the live broadcast. 

McShane is one of many participants who played the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk before this event. Another is Levon Aronian, who was so close to reaching the semifinals but ended by losing a winning game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Armenian GM is definitely one of the top favorites at Isle of Man.

On Saturday Aronian defeated Andrey Esipenko, one of the many junior players in this tournament and one of Russia's biggest talents at the moment.

Asked whether he prefers playing younger or older opponents, Aronian replied: "The youngsters. You got to beat them while they're young!"

Aronian showed his game in the live broadcast. 

Sergey Karjakin is obviously a favorite as well. Like Carlsen, the 2016 world championship contender is on 2/3, thanks to a win after two draws. A bit of good luck was involved here; poor Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan decided to avoid a move repetition (and rightly so), only to lose four moves later:

We finish this report with a miniature by the Indian junior Nihal Sarin. His opponent WGM Vera Nebolsina responded badly to a piece sacrifice and was subsequently crushed:

On a final note, this round was rather unique in the sense that not one but two games played on the same day saw four queens on the board!

That's one...

...and there's another one!

FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss | Round 3 Standings (Top 12)

(Full standings here.)

Tomorrow it's time for Caruana to set something straight. In his eight classical games with Wang so far, the score is 6.5-1.5 for the Chinese GM, who scored five wins, three draws and zero losses vs. Caruana. It must be noted that Wang played as White in seven of the eight games.

FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss | Round 4 Pairings

(Full pairings here.)

After 8 hours and 151 moves, Belarusian #1 Vladislav Kovalev (🇧🇾 2661) wins a marathon game against young Romanian IM David Gavrilescu (🇷🇴 2451)

Kovalev's reward is white against world champion, @MagnusCarlsen in round 4 at #iomchess pic.twitter.com/yVidwBWd4v

— iomchess (@iomchess) October 12, 2019

Find the top games of round three for replay here:

Rakesh Kulkarni contributed to this report.

Previous reports:

• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Starts Thursday
• FIDE Chess.com Isle Of Man: Round 1 Pairings
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: Najer Upsets Anand In Round 1
• FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: 5 Players Lead After Round 2