The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen was the only winner in the third round of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger and leads on 2.5/3. Carlsen defeated Nil Grandelius who decided to play and unusual variation of the Sicilian with 2...Nf6, this was a decision to battle Carlsen over the board and he was steadily outplayed. 7.Qc1 was an excellent long term idea, 14...Bh6? was an error after which Carlsen was winning, the position remained complex but Carlsen remained accurate and in control.

Anish Giri had lost his previous five games to Vladimir Kramnik but it didn't seem likely today. After the game Giri showed he was well on top of the theory and Kramnik played 16.Qa5 to get an endgame where Giri wouldn't know the exact correct move. After this a complicated but level endgame arose where both had to be accurate and a draw was the fair result. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Pavel Eljanov drew an interesting theoretical struggle in the Berlin Defence. Veselin Topalov drew with black against Pentala Harikrishna. Levon Aronian seemed to have good pressure against Li Chao but he couldn't make anything of the advantage.

Round 3 standings: Carlsen 2.5pts, Vachier-Lagrave, Kramnik 2pts, Li Chao, Topalov, Giri, Aronian 1.5pts, Eljanov, Harikrishna 1pts, Grandelius 0.5pts.

Round 4 pairings Friday 22nd April 3pm BST: Eljanov-Topalov, Li Chao-Carlsen, Giri-Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave-Kramnik, Grandelius-Harikrishna.