Thessaloniki Grand Prix Round 3 - UPDATED

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The third round of the FIDE Thessaloniki Grand Prix didn't quite produce the sparks of the first two rounds, with only one game ending in a decisive result.

Vassily Ivanchuk should have won against the Cuban Leinier Perez-Dominguez, after dominating the game and achieving a clearly won position. However, instead the Ukrainian ended up losing on time. Perhaps Ivanchuk should only play in tournaments with an increment from the start of the game!  Grand Prix events use the time control 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour, then 15 minutes plus a 30 second increment after move 60.

UPDATE: The official website has given more details about the dramatic finish to the game:

Another mistake (by Ivanchuk) followed as white left the Knight en prise, but Dominguez didn't want to take it and instead attempted to make a draw by perpetual check. The Cuban explained the motives for this act.

In Linares 2009 he and Ivanchuk run into huge time trouble and in all the speed the Ukrainian was knocking some pieces down. It wasn't anything drastic and Dominguez didn't object. After the time control Ivanchuk emerged with a winning position but he immediately offered a draw because he felt bad about the knocked pieces. In today's game, however, Ivanchuk failed to reach the time control and his flag dropped before the last move. As draw offers are not allowed, Dominguez had to wait for the three-fold repetition to make a claim, but this never occurred. He still tried to register the game as a draw, but the Chief Arbiter had no grounds to accept as the flag already fell.

Dominguez said he is very sorry that he couldn't return the favor in fair-play.

Hikaru Nakamura finally got on the scoreboard with a draw against Etienne Bacrot, despite another long game which was the last to finish.

Oh, Chucky! Not again!

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Apart from Ivanchuk's self-destruction, the most memorable game of the day was the clash between Gata Kamsky and Alexander Grischuk.  The reigning US Champion should have put away his opponent after conjuring up a strong attack from the simple London system, but the game ended with a perpetual just before the time control.

Gata Kamsky misses a golden chance against Alexander Grischuk

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Fabiano Caruana drew with Peter Svidler

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Veselin Topalov drew his game with Ruslan Ponomariov

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Rustam Kasimdzhanov

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Etienne Bacrot couldn't make it 0-3 for Hikaru Nakamura

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The standings after 3 rounds

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The schedule for the 2013 Thessaloniki Grand Prix

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The fourth Grand Prix of the 2012/13 series runs from 21 May - 4 June in Thessaloniki, Greece. The full pairings are available here.

The overall winner and runner-up of the 2012/13 Grand Prix series will qualify for the next Candidates Tournament, expected to be held in March 2014. The first three events were held in London, Tashkent and Zug. The current standings are shown here.

Each tournament is a single round-robin featuring 12 out of the 18 players in the Grand Prix, and each player competes in four of the six events. The best 3 scores of each player count towards their overall score. The official regulations for the 2012/13 FIDE Grand Prix can be found here.

All rounds start at 14:00 local time (11:00 UTC) except the final round which starts 2 hours earlier. The time control used is 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in 1 hour, then 15 minutes plus a 30 second increment after move 60.

Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich at the official website, which has live games, analysis and video.

Games via TWIC.