The Week in Chess

All the games in round 3 of the Sinquefield Cup were drawn but there were missed opportunities in most of the games.

Levon Aronian surprised Wesley So with a dangerous new sacrifice and after 14.Qd2?! would have stood much better after 14...Ne5. As it was the position was fairly balanced and the game finished in perpetual check.

Peter Svidler made good use of the white pieces to get good chances against Fabiano Caruana. 16...Nf6 was identified by Caruana as the real start of his troubles. 23.Qxa6 allowed Caruana back in the game 23.Nxe5 was better but the difficulties left him short of time and he made move 40 with a move to spare and was fairly lucky he hadn't damaged his position beyond repair. The endgame didn't provide Svidler many winning chances and was soon drawn.

Viswanathan Anand and Hikaru Nakamura drew a creative Najdorf Sicilian where Anand had the initiative but Nakamura defended accurately to equalise.

Veselin Topalov against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was a sharp Najdorf where both players were well prepared but Topalov forgot the details and played a move he 27.Rd3 knew lost a pawn. 27...d5! would have exploited this error to the maximum but after 27...Rxc2 Topalov had reasonable saving chances even a pawn down and he managed to hold the draw.

Anish Giri got a sizable advantage against Ding Liren but allowed a strong exchange sacrifice after 20.Be4?! which black had good chances. Ding perhaps underestimated his position after that. Giri returned the exchange to open up Ding's king and the game finished in perpetual check. Ding could have played for a win with 35...Ke4 but was happy to escape with a draw.

Round 3 standings: So, Anand, Aronian, Topalov 2pts, Ding, Caruana, Nakamura 1.5pts, MVL, Giri 1pt, Svidler 0.5pts

Round 4 pairings 7pm UK time Monday 8th August: Aronian-Caruana, Nakamura-Topalov, Ding-Anand, So-Giri, MVL-Svidler