Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has long been renowned for his skill in sharp, complex positions. He drew on his talents today to defeat Pavel Eljanov, but he also needed a bit of luck as Eljanov missed a clear win. Consequently, Mamedyarov passes Eljanov in the standings after the third round in Shamkir, moving to +2 and clear first and pushing Eljanov, who started with two wins, back to +1. Mamedyarov's recent performance has elevated him into the top 10, likely wrecking Norway's hopes to have the full top 10 compete in Norway Chess 2017.

Photo courtesy of the official site.

Three-quarters of Eljanov vs Mamedyarov went Eljanov's way. He achieved a nice advantage out of the opening and played provocatively to gain space. The game featured a lot of slight ups and downs in the evaluation as is typical for such sharp and creative play, but Eljanov's advantage had become decisive when on move 44 he selected Re5? "blundering" (Eljanov's words) 44...Qh3! and missing 44.e7! which would have basically ended the game. After that, Mamedyarov had significant practical chances and won quickly.

Photo courtesy of the official site.

Mamedyarov on his way to a make a rating jump, which means #NorwayChess in June is unlikely to field the World's top 10 players. pic.twitter.com/UhxP25ZhhW — Tarjei J. Svensen ( @TarjeiJS ) April 23, 2017

Michael Adams has recently reachieved the peak rating of 2761 that he first tallied in September of 2013 and is playing excellent chess. Today, he outplayed Sergey Karjakin with the black pieces, achieving equality and then an advantage. In the final position, Karjakin blundered a tactic, but he could have continued to fight had he not forfeited on time at this point.

It is very unusual for a player to forfeit on time at such a level, but time trouble issues have been endemic to Shamkir as the players are struggling to adjust to the lack of increment.

Photo courtesy of the official site.

Teimour Radjabov and Pentala Harikrishna contested a very interesting game. Radjabov sacrificed a piece but achieved complete dominance of the seventh rank. Harikrishna played all the necessary moves and forced Radjabov to give the perpetual.

Photo courtesy of the official site.

Wesley So vs Radek Wojtaszek was an interesting draw. Optically So had quite a nice attack, but good defense lead to an equal endgame. Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov played a correct draw. Of course, there must always be drama when these two rivalrous titans are playing. Today the drama was in the post-mortem where the players exchanged many interesting lines before Ljubomir Ljubojevic asked them if they could reconcile if their children fell in love a la Layla and Manjun. Answer: No, but they would not stand in the way of true love

Stockfish gives Kramnik and Topalov shaking hands as an illegal move. #shamkirchess2017 #c24live — Jake Darmanin ( @JakeDarmanin ) April 23, 2017

Standings After Round Three

Player Fed Player Rtng Score 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2772 2.5 1 ½ 1 2 Topalov, Veselin 2741 2 ½ ½ 1 3 Adams, Michael 2761 2 ½ 1 ½ 4 Eljanov, Pavel 2751 2 0 1 1 5 Kramnik, Vladimir 2811 1.5 ½ ½ ½ 6 Karjakin, Sergey 2783 1 ½ 0 ½ 7 So, Wesley 2822 1 0 ½ ½ 8 Radjabov, Teimour 2710 1 0 ½ ½ 9 Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 2745 1 ½ ½ 10 Harikrishna, Pentala 2755 1 0 ½ ½

Games from TWIC.

Previous Reports: