Grischuk Wins 3rd Game at Petrosian Memorial

In the third round, Alexander Grischuk continued his winning streak at the Petrosian Memorial. The Russian GM beat Alexander Morozevich and increased his lead to a full point.

Is he doing a Caruana? Well, the tournament lasts seven rounds, so he could. Grischuk also won his third game in Moscow today, and with draws in the other three games, he is now a point ahead of Vladimir Kramnik.

Morozevich played the Chebanenko Slav as Black but did not manage to equalize. For the third time, Grischuk got an advantage out of the opening and simply never let go.

That's powerful chess! White put his pieces on natural squares, while Black couldn't find a proper setup. The fact that the bishop on c8 only moved to f5 once and then went back to c8 for the rest of the game says it all.

Ten years ago they played a world championship match, and today they faced each other in Moscow: Peter Leko and Vladimir Kramnik.

The Hungarian GM played an interesting new idea in a topical line of the Queen's Gambit Declined, and as a result White had a queen, and Black two rooks. At some point it was hard to evaluate who was better but just before the time control the players decided that a draw was a good result.

Ernesto Inarkiev finally got to play with the white pieces, and finally got rid of that annoying zero in the standings table. The Russian GM followed Wesley So's recipe in the Fianchetto Grünfeld (versus Ray Robson at the Millionaire Chess tournament last month) and Gelfand wasn't fully prepared for it — at least his time usage doesn't suggest so.

The Israeli GM quickly went for an ending a pawn down but with a solid structure and active pieces. Soon it became clear that Black had enough to keep the game balanced.

Like Peter Leko, Ding Liren and Levon Aronian have drawn their first three games. Today they played a Fianchetto Grünfeld as well, and Aronian followed the moves of Grischuk against the same opponent at the Tromsø Olympiad.

After 19 moves, the game was a beautiful display of symmetry!

The black king is one square closer to the center, but White is to move. Is his advantage bigger than in the starting position? Hard to say!

Aronian did keep an advantage and managed to win a pawn, but Ding showed that he possesses great defensive skills.

2014 Petrosian Memorial | Round 3 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pts	SB
1	Grischuk,Alexander	2795	3523						1	1	1	3.0/3
2	Kramnik,Vladimir	2760	2836			½	½				1	2.0/3
3	Ding,Liren	2730	2762		½		½	½				1.5/3	2.50
4	Leko,Peter	2731	2738		½	½			½			1.5/3	2.25
5	Aronian,Levon	2797	2738			½			½	½		1.5/3	1.75
6	Morozevich,Alexander	2724	2654	0			½	½				1.0/3	1.50
7	Gelfand,Boris	2759	2640	0				½			½	1.0/3	1.00
8	Inarkiev,Ernesto	2688	2492	0	0					½		0.5/3

2014 Petrosian Memorial | Pairings & Results

The Petrosian Memorial is held 3-11 November in Moscow. The prize fund is € 100,000 sponsored by Tashir Group.| Games via TWIC