Four more wins in Foros
Carlsen takes lead as Shirov falters
Another exciting day at the Black Sea resort of Foros as four of the six games yielded decisive results. Alexei Shirov was first to suffer, losing his game against Pavel Eljanov (pictured) of Ukraine. In a double rook ending, Eljanov manoeuvred his rooks onto the seventh rank and picked off Shirov's pawns to win.
Carlsen duly took advantage by winning against the luckless Dutchman Loek Van Wely. They looked set to share the points, but Carlsen has a happy knack of squeezing wins out of drawish positions and he took advantage of a slip by Van Wely to top the leaderboard.
The Giuoco Piano is a rare opening at the top levels, but Evgeny Alekseev employed it to beat Peter Svidler. Who needs cutting edge opening theory anyway?
Early exchanges of the minor pieces in the game between Dmitry Jakovenko and Andrei Volotkin left a heavy piece ending of Queens and Rooks. Jakovenko pushed his pawns to attack the King and eventually they proved unstoppable.
The biggest winner from the first 3 rounds is the White pieces, with 9 victories to just one for Black !(Shirov in round 1)
The full results in round 3:
| Carlsen, Magnus | - Van Wely, Loek | 1-0 | 61 | D43 | Anti-Meran Gambit |
| Eljanov, Pavel | - Shirov, Alexei | 1-0 | 39 | A15 | English counter King's Fianchetto |
| Alekseev, Evgeny | - Svidler, Peter | 1-0 | 47 | C53 | Giuoco Piano |
| Jakovenko, Dmitry | - Volokitin, Andrei | 1-0 | 52 | E94 | King's Indian Classical |
| Onischuk, Alexander | - Karjakin, Sergey | ½-½ | 44 | D47 | Queens Gambit Meran |
| Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | - Ivanchuk, Vassily | ½-½ | 44 | B40 | Sicilian Classical |
The leaderboard after round 3:
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2765 | * | . | . | . | 1 | . | . | . | ½ | . | . | 1 | 2½ |
| 2 | Eljanov, Pavel | UKR | 2687 | . | * | . | 1 | . | . | . | . | ½ | . | . | ½ | 2 |
| 3 | Karjakin, Sergey | UKR | 2732 | . | . | * | . | . | ½ | . | . | . | ½ | 1 | . | 2 |
| 4 | Shirov, Alexei | ESP | 2740 | . | 0 | . | * | . | . | 1 | . | . | . | . | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2740 | 0 | . | . | . | * | 1 | . | . | . | . | ½ | . | 1½ |
| 6 | Alekseev, Evgeny | RUS | 2711 | . | . | ½ | . | 0 | * | . | . | 1 | . | . | . | 1½ |
| 7 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | RUS | 2711 | . | . | . | 0 | . | . | * | 1 | . | ½ | . | . | 1½ |
| 8 | Volokitin, Andrei | UKR | 2684 | . | . | . | . | . | . | 0 | * | . | 1 | ½ | . | 1½ |
| 9 | Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2746 | ½ | ½ | . | . | . | 0 | . | . | * | . | . | . | 1 |
| 10 | Onischuk, Alexander | USA | 2664 | . | . | ½ | . | . | . | ½ | 0 | . | * | . | . | 1 |
| 11 | Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | ROU | 2684 | . | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | . | ½ | . | . | * | . | 1 |
| 12 | Van Wely, Loek | NED | 2677 | 0 | ½ | . | 0 | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | * | ½ |
