The Week in Chess

Fabiano Caruana took an early lead in the Tata Steel Masters after a 49 move victory over a struggling Michael Adams. Adams had the better of the opening but in a double edged position his position went from better to much worse on the run up to first time control and was defeated in 63 moves. This left Caruana in sole lead on 2.5/3 half a point clear of Wesley So and Ding Liren.

Wei Yi's first game against Magnus Carlsen was a theoretical duel in the Ruy Lopez Marshall. Carlsen's 19...Qxf3+ was new after which both players used huge amounts of their remaining time for the next few moves in the complex position that remained. The game remained roughly balanced until near first time control when Wei Yi allowed Carlsen a little more play than he should have (a more active rook) but a few accurate moves confirmed the draw.

Pavel Eljanov was on the verge of resignation when he received an astonishing gift of the full point from Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who just dropped a rook.

Anish Giri almost lost his second game of the event when he missed a powerful rook sacrifice from David Navara. The computers found the powerful 28.Bd4! shot that should have finished things in Navara's favour. Navara was still much better but in time trouble he didn't find 39.Qg5! and the game was drawn soon after.

The remaining games Van Wely-Tomashevsky, Wesley So-Karjakin and Ding Liren vs Hou Yifan were also drawn

Aleksey Dreev leads the B-Group with a perfect 3/3.

Round 3 Standings: 1st Caruana 2.5pts 2nd-3rd So, Ding Liren 2pts 4th-11th Carlsen, Hou Yifan, Karjakin, Wei Yi, Tomashevsky, Van Wely, Eljanov, Navara 1.5pts, 12th-13th Giri, Mamedyarov 1pt 14th Adams 0.5pts

Round 4 Tuesday 19th Jan 12:30 GMT Karjakin-Tomashevsky, Eljanov-Van Wely, Carlsen-Mamedyarov, Adams-Wei, Giri-Caruana, Hou-Navara, So-Ding.