The Week in Chess

Anish Giri joined Alireza Firouzja in the lead by beating Alexander Donchenko with the black pieces using the Modern Defence. 17.Nd4 (17.Nd2) seemed to hand Giri a little initiative, 30.Rd3 (30.cxd5) gave ground but it was 35.Qd3? that led to the loss on move 41. Jorden van Foreest also used the Modern with black against Ju Wenjun, black got to be better but it was the sequence 32...Nd4 (32...Nf4 was better) 33.f6? (33.Rxd4 was a better try) 33...Bxe5 led to the win for Van Foreest. Ding Liren scored his first win with black in a manoeuvring Two Knights/Giuoco Piano with 4.d3 against Gukesh. 19.Rd2?! (19.Bd3!) seemed a misstep and 24.Re3 (24.Rxe8) appears to be the decisive error with Ding winning in 37 moves. Parham Maghsoodloo lost to Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the variation 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 e4 4. Ng5 c6 which had a moment in the sun in 2022. I don't know of a refutation, I had to have a line for my own use and don't know why it hasn't been used more often since. 5.Qa4 is what Christof Sielecki recommends, taking is I think is the real test but if white has something, it isn't much in either case.

The results today mean that there have been 11 decisive games in three rounds so far, 10 of those wins have been with the black pieces.

Leader Alireza Firouzja conceded his first draw but it was a comfortable one with black against Max Warmerdam. Santosh Vidit had the slightly worse side of a draw against Ian Nepomniachtchi in the Petroff and Wei Yi too had the better side of a draw with black in a Najdorf against Praggnanandhaa.

There's a 6 way tie on 2/3 in the Challengers group.

Round 3 Standings: 1st= Firouzja, Giri 2.5pts 3rd= Abdusattorov, Ding Liren, Nepomniachtchi 2pts 6th= Vidit, Gukesh, Warmerdam, Praggnanandhaa, Wei Yi 1.5pts 11th Van Foreest 1pt 12th= Donchenko, Maghsoodloo, Ju Wenjun 0.5pts

Round 4 16th Jan 1pm GMT: Firouzja-Abdusattorov, Wei Yi-Maghsoodloo, Ding Liren-Praggnanandhaa, Giri-Gukesh, Nepomniachtchi-Donchenko, Van Foreest-Vidit and Warmerdam-Ju Wenjun.