The Week in Chess

The third round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Zug saw all the games drawn. Only Veselin Topalov had serious chances to win in a generally rather cagey round. Topalov was rather cross with himself at missing converting the winning position he had against Kamsky.

Veselin Topalov said that time trouble was the main explanation for the missed chances in his game against Gata Kamsky. The Sicilian with 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Nd7 quickly became complicated and interesting and the players began burning time. Kamsky really wanted to play 15.Bf4 but couldn't make it work to his satisfaction and Topalov agreed it was critical. 15.Bg5 led to balanced play 27.Ng2 was an error from Kamsky and his position went downhill fast but Topalov shook his head at his play in failing to convert the winning advantage he had after 32.Kf1? Topalov's 34...Qc8? was met by 35.f3! which he completely missed and the game went into a level ending eventually drawn.

Anish Giri spent the last year completing his education and his opening knowledge is probably the major thing to suffer. He played a Catalan, Radjabov knew his drawish variation better and Giri didn't have much choice but to repeat to draw on move 19.

Alexander Morozevich defended a closed Ruy Lopez against Fabiano Caruana. Created some technical problems but essentially Morozevich needed to be precise rather than being in any trouble.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov looked like he should get at least something from his QGD Bf4 against Rustam Kasimdzhanov but at least in this game the position became drawish very quickly.

Hikaru Nakamura played the French Classical and headed for a variation he has recently used against Anand and Karjakin in this tournament. Leko was ready for it and got a little something but this wasn't sufficient to win.

Sergey Karjakin got a comfortable edge in a Scotch after his 10.g3 seemed to take Ruslan Ponomariov by surprise (he admitted to giving priority to resting after his marathon the day before) and white had pressure. However nothing clear emerged and the game was eventually drawn.

Round 3 Standings: Morozevich, Ponomariov, Topalov 2 Pts, Caruana, Kasimdzhanov, Mamedyarov, Karjakin, Giri, Nakamura 1.5 Pts, Radjabov, Kamsky, Leko 1Pt.

Round 4 21st Apr 2013 1pm: Kasimdzhanov-Topalov, Nakamura-Kamsky, Radjabov-Leko, Ponomariov-Giri, Morozevich-Karjakin, Mamedyarov-Caruana.