The Week in Chess

Viswanathan Anand leads the FIDE Candidates alone on 2.5/3 going into the first rest day. He beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov very easily with black. Mamedyarov said he was mystified by his bad form so far and hoped to put this past and suggested the four months away from classical chess had affected him. 17.e5 left Anand with a nice advantage, Mamedyarov tried to simplify but the position became hard and he collapsed from a playable position after 21.Rxf3 in just 10 moves. That said this was pretty good play from Anand.

Sergey Karjakin equalised on the black side of the Berlin Defence and a draw was agreed after 30 moves.

Veselin Topalov against Levon Aronian was a razor sharp Ruy Lopez which finished in perpetual check.

Peter Svidler got a small but nice advantage after the opening against Vladimir Kramnik and after 25.c5 was definitely on top. 27.Be3 seems to be a good move. Later in mutual time trouble Kramnik managed to get back in the game and it finished in a draw by perpetual check.

I was out playing chess myself oln the day but now added notes to the game file based on the press conferences. Also still hoping for the official press release on the round.

Round 3 Standings: Anand 2.5pts Kramnik, Svidler 2pts Topalov, Aronian 1.5pts Andreikin, Karjakin 1pt Mamedyarov 0.5pts

Rest day Sunday.

Round 4 Monday 9am GMT: Mamedyarov-Andreikin, Karjakin-Topalov, Aronian-Svidler, Anand-Kramnik