Lazavik, Carlsen, Terry Win Thursday 3 0
GM Denis Lazavik, GM Magnus Carlsen, and IM Renato Terry won the third week of 3 0 Thursday events, which were held on November 27.
The first two tournaments were fought mainly between Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura, while the third event proved to be an exciting one with an open field, where Terry scored wins in the final six rounds to top the tournament after a dramatic finish.
1st Tournament
The 3 0 format brings extra excitement to the event, as evident in GM Vladislav Artemiev's first-round game against untitled Duc Minh Lai, when he hung his queen while delivering the final checkmate even with 13 seconds on his clock.
But he was soon back in the thick of action, winning his next five games and facing Carlsen in the seventh round, when the clock had its say again.
Incredibly, Carlsen was friends with the clock throughout the evening: 1) GM Xue Haowen ran out of time while checkmating Carlsen's king with his rook and king in the third round, 2) GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan resigned with just eight seconds left on his clock in an equal position in the sixth round, and 3) Carlsen won the final round when IM Abtin Atakhan lost on time with a rook and bishop against Carlsen's lone rook.
But one game which Carlsen deserved to win was in his heavyweight clash against Nakamura in the eighth round, when he uncorked every chess player's friend and fantasy, the Greek Gift. Commenting on the game, Nakamura called this an 'Uh-Oh-Spaghetti-O' moment.
But the remainder of the game was a long-drawn anti-climax, as Nakamura managed to fight back and even win the game.
Nakamura was also lucky to escape from defeat against Artemiev in the penultimate round, when he first blundered his queen, and then was about to get checkmated in one move, when his opponent ran out of time. He thus reached nine points after the penultimate round, to jointly lead the event with Lazavik.
Lazavik had creditable wins against GM Sam Sevian and GM Alexey Sarana, and a share of luck against GM Aravindh Chithamabram when the latter ran out of time with an extra rook on the board in the ninth round.
The last round was an anti-climax, as both Nakamura and Lazavik lost, to GMs Arjun Erigaisi and Artemiev respectively, for the event to end in a five-way tie. All the above were joined on nine points by GM Jose Martinez.
IM Karina Ambartsumova took the 1st tournament women's prize with 6/11.
2nd Tournament
GM Parham Maghsoodloo joined Nakamura early in the lead with 5.5 points from six games, and their mutual encounter in the seventh round decided the lead in favor of Nakamura. As is typical for Maghsoodloo, he decided to take risks rather than going for a logical follow-up in a slightly better position.
Meanwhile, Carlsen had his hiccups in the initial rounds, and actually lost to GM Sina Movahed in the fifth round in a see-saw encounter.
The eighth round featured the mega-clash between Nakamura and Carlsen, with the latter half a point behind.
This effectively sealed the tournament in favor of Carlsen, who won his remaining games in the tournament, to win convincingly at 10/11, a point and a half ahead of the field.
Ambartsumova once again took the prize for the best woman with 6/11.
3rd Tournament
Just as in the previous week, Terry emerged as the winner of the third tournament, but only after a dramatic final round.
GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son enjoyed a whole point lead at the end of the ninth round, when he was outplayed by Terry in the penultimate round.
With both going into the last round with an identical eight points, Nguyen lost a one-sided game to GM Temur Kuybokarov.
In the most important game of the event, Terry went through various phases of excitement before winning the game.
Just as in the previous week, WFM Hoang Minh Tho Do took the women's prize with 6/11.
3 0 Thursday features three tournaments every week for titled players. The events are on Thursday every week at 11 a.m., 4 p.m., and 9 p.m. ET / 17:00, 22:00, and 3 a.m. (+1) CET / 9:30 p.m., 2.30 a.m. (+1), and 7.30 a.m. (+1) IST.
