Ronde 3.2: Mamedyarov eruitRound 3.2: Mamedyarov out

Alekseev, Jakovenko, Shirov, Akopian, Ponomariov, Kamsky, Adams, Carlsen, Wang Yue and Cheparinov have qualified for the 4th round by eliminating Fressinet, Almasi, Onischuk, Malakhov, Tomashevsky, K.Georgiev, Zhou Jianchao, Domiguez, Bu Xiangzhi and Mamedyarov respectively. Six matches are playing the tiebreaks today.

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This means two round 4 matches are already clear: Shirov-Akopian and Wang Yue-Cheparinov.

Mamedyarov had an offday yesterday. He had to win with White but soon made some inaccuracies, and the last one was accompanied with a draw offer that meant a "match resignation". Shirov surprised his opponent Onischuk by playing the Nooteboom Variation of the Slav Defence, quite popular at club level but an extremely rare guest between top grandmasters. The seemingly innocuous h2-h3 by White was punished severly with a model attacking game by Black. Svidler survived a worse ending against Rublevsky and Adams' answer to Zhou Jianchou's Catalan proved as solid as always, thus enough to eliminate the Chinese outsider. Alekseev didn't have much trouble beating Fressinet with White after a slightly careless push of the f-pawn by the Frenchman. Akopian and Ponomariov showed fine endgame technique to bring down their opponents Malakhov and Tomashevky respectively. After the ending RB-R, yesterday the ending RN-R appeared on one of the boards in Khanty-Manskiysk. For fifty moves Sasikiran tried to win it against Macieja but he didn't even manage to push the Black king to the back rank.

All round 3 games thus far in PGN here. Round 3.2 fragments: