The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen's decision to take huge risks by sacrificing a piece against Arkadij Naiditsch didn't pay off in the end as he lost a complicated endgame where it seemed at one point he had equalised. Carlsen played the Modern Defence and Naidtisch believed the 10... Bxg4 sacrifice was already a sign of desperation by Carlsen. Naiditsch missed several chances in a complex game (he was especially cross with himself for not playing 31.Nxe5 dxe5 32.Rb4 which he felt was just over). The position was assessed as close to equal by the computers as time trouble intervened coming up to first time control but Naiditsch was still a piece up and once he reorganised Carlsen was again lost, this time for the final time. Carlsen looked fed up with himself at the end and didn't attend the press conference.

Fabiano Caruana took advantage of several serious errors by Levon Aronian to win a rather poor game. Aronian pointed out that he could and should have forced a repetition at one stage.

Michael Adams took advantage of a tactical blunder by his opponent David Baramidze and although he let some of this advantage go he then refuted a second incorrect sacrifice for the point.

Etienne Bacrot played a theoretical Berlin against Viswanathan Anand. There were sharp variations that Anand stayed on top of and Bacrot felt he had then to concentrate on forcing the draw.

Round 3 standings: Naiditsch, Caruana 2pts/3, Anand, Bacrot, Carlsen, Adams 1.5pts, Aronian, Baramidze 1pt.

Rest day Thursday

Round 4 pairings Friday 2pm GMT: Anand-Carlsen, Baramidze-Naiditsch, Caruana-Adams, Bacrot-Aronian