Lev Aronian Leads Tal Memorial

After three rounds of the 2010 Tal Memorial, Lev Aronian is the sole leader thanks to wins against Vladimir Kramnik in round one, and Boris Gelfand in round three.

Gelfand has had a topsy-turvy start, losing in the opener, then recovering to beat Shirov in round two, before his second loss today.

The only other decisive game in round two saw Nakamura beat Eljanov.  Naka's strategy for this tournament of playing solidly with black and going for wins with white is working so far, but tomorrow he has white against Kramnik!

Two other wins in round three came from Vladimir Kramnik and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.  Kramnik's win against Eljanov gets him back to a level score and Shak's defeat of Shirov was the last game to end.  Eljanov and Shirov have the unenviable record of having lost all their games so far.

Live games are here.  Excellent live video (must be seen!) here, with Russian commentary.  Games start at 15:00 local time in Moscow (GMT+3).

The standings after three rounds:

Kramnik scored his first win today (all pics by Anna Burtasovoy)

Karjakin was held to a draw by Nakamura

A happy Aronian demonstrates his win for the media