Radjabov won blindfold game, but lost rapid at Amber

However, that need not stop us from drawing some conclusions. So far Vladimir Kramnik has been dominating the blindfold (3/3), just like Levon Aronian has been dominating the rapid (3/3). In the overall standings the World Champion is leading with 5/6, half a point ahead of the Armenian. Last year's winners Vishy Anand and Alexander Morozevich have some catching up to do. Anand is trailing the leader by one and a half points. Morozevich is two points behind. They'll find comfort in the fact that there are sixteen more games to be played.

Peter Leko and Paco Vallejo agreed after their blindfold game that Black had not gotten sufficient play out of the opening. In fact, the middle and endgame were torture for the Spanish grandmaster. His new move 13…f5 looked aggressive but turned out to be not very effective when White controlled the centre with 14.Nd2. Normally in this kind of position Black depends on dynamic counterplay, but sadly for Vallejo under these circumstances all dynamism was lacking. With a steady hand he increased his advantage before he decided the issue with the advance 38.c5!.

The rapid game saw the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez. Leko opted for 5…Ne7, which is less usual than the main lines, but probably perfectly playable. Certainly if we go by this game, where Black had no real complaints. Vallejo didn't feel too happy with his position and on move 23 he offered a draw. After the game the players analyzed for about an hour to reach no other conclusion than that the situation was very complicated. In the final position Black could have continued 23…Kb7. Had he tried to force a draw with 23…Bg5, White would have had the option to decline with 24.Bc1. (And in case you wondered if Black could take the rook on a1 on move 11, no, he cannot. White plays 12.Nc3 and the black queen will be trapped with Bb2.)

After their blindfold game Boris Gelfand wondered why he hadn't played the line he chose against Levon Aronian in the game they played some months ago at the Tal Memorial in Moscow. There he went for the dubious 10.Nd2, now he played a move he liked better, 10.Rc1. His idea was 11.Be5 (yesterday Leko played 11.Bxb8 against Aronian), a move that was played once before in Bogdanovsky-Rodriguez at the 1996 Yerevan Olympiad. In that game Black withdrew his knight to f6 on move 13, which was a better plan than the blunder Aronian made, 13…f6?. After White's 14.exd5 Black had no choice as in case of 14…fxe5 15.Nxe5 both the knight on h5 is hanging and the pawn at c6 is attacked twice. After 16.Nh4! White was winning and the course the game followed in the next seven moves was probably only one of several ways for White to win.

Aronian hit back in the rapid game, but he wasn't too proud about his achievement. Objectively he was worse and he only won because Gelfand lost the thread. Aronian knew before the game that he wasn't fully informed about the line they played, but he wanted to try it anyway, as he was looking for a sharp fight. And a sharp fight it certainly was, which might be a good reason to forgive Gelfand the mistakes that he made. Probably 24…0-0-0 was stronger than 24…Kd8, and his 25th move was certainly a blunder. After 25…Bf4 there would still be all to play for. After the move in the game, 25…Bd7?, the game was essentially over.

In his blindfold game against Magnus Carlsen, Peter Svidler defended himself with an old pet line of his, that he used to play when he was a teenager. At first sight it looks slightly suspect for Black, but the black set-up contains a lot of resilience. Carlsen was not too pleased with his thirteenth move, where he felt that he should have taken with the knight on d5 instead of the bishop. And he was outright unhappy with 19.Be3, where he believed he would have had an edge after 19.h4. Now he had to turn to defence and this he did with great precision. The way he held the rook endgame to a draw must have been highly instructive for a good part of the crowd that was watching the game online.

In the rapid game, in which he was Black, Carlsen had little trouble to make another draw. In an Open Ruy Lopez, Svidler tried to be creative with 15. a4, but had to recognize quite soon that in fact the position was too sterile to hope for any real adventures. Black could comfortably have ignored the push with 15…0-0 (Svidler) when he might even be slightly better, but Carlsen's solution 15…b4 also equalized easily. After 31 moves, when both players had three pawns left (on the same side) plus a rook and a king each, no one blamed them for ceasing the hostilities.

Not surprisingly, Loek van Wely and Teimour Radjabov continued their King's Indian discussion in their blindfold game. As you may remember Van Wely inflicted a defeat on Radjabov at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2005, but the roles were reversed last January in Wijk aan Zee. This time the Dutch grandmaster seemed to get a pleasant advantage from the opening. However, once the smoke had cleared the general consensus was that the game was heading for a draw, even if Black's position was a little more active. Was Van Wely finally going to score half a point? Unfortunately for him he wasn't. With his 40th move he blundered a piece (correct was 40.Rd2) and although he kept fighting tenaciously his fifth consecutive loss could not be averted.

Before the rapid game between Radjabov and Van Wely, a smiling Vladimir Kramnik asked the Dutchman if it wasn't time he was going to score a point? Good-humouredly Van Wely answered that he was certainly trying everything, as might have been clear from the fact that he had started using his opening novelties (referring to 17.Rxe4 in the blindfold game). And so, in the rapid game he uncorked another novelty, 14…Kf7, a move he had been preparing for a game against Ivan Sokolov in the Dutch League (which didn't take place as they didn't play each other in that match). Radjabov's reply (15.Be3 and 16.Qe2) didn't look like the refutation of Van Wely's idea and soon Black had a very comfortable position. The only moment he still had some worries was before White's 26th, when he was looking at 26.Bh5+ g6 27.Qh6 and believed he would have to play 27…Ke6. Radjabov continued differently and once the black queenside pawns started rolling it was clear that White was in dire straits. Which didn't stop him from offering a draw on move 31, a 'trap' that Van Wely didn't fall for either.

Vladimir Kramnik reacted with a laconic smile on his win over Alexander Morozevich in their blindfold game. 'I first picked up one pawn and then another,' the World Champion summed up. Of course, it wasn't all that simple, although we cannot exclude that to a player of Kramnik's calibre it must have felt this way. Morozevich's pawn offer, 15.Nc4, was too optimistic. Had he recaptured on e4 White would have been slightly better. Now Black got an easy game and after 17…e5 he was a healthy pawn up. But let's repeat, that's the clinical conclusion in hindsight that might belittle Kramnik's achievement. There must be numerous players who were a pawn up against Morozevich and didn’t live to tell the tale.

The rapid game was easily Kramnik's worst game so far. From the opening he got nothing and 'blundering several moves', as he put it, he ended up in an uncomfortable position where he had to play carefully to save the draw. He never got into any real danger of losing, but he certainly was pleased when after 70 moves the ordeal was over.

If there is one player who motivates Vasily Ivanchuk more than anyone else it's Vishy Anand. As might be expected the Ukrainian grandmaster arrived fully concentrated for the blindfold game against his Indian colleague (particularly, we guess, after the chances he missed yesterday against Morozevich). Ivanchuk executed his moves with great determination and at high speed. All in all the game took him about ten minutes. Perhaps Anand was affected by this speed, but in any case he soon ended up in a precarious position. His 18th move wasn't very fortunate (he should have tried 18…Na4) and then the end was near. The logical looking 21…Qxg5 cost a piece and two moves later Anand resigned. In the final position 23…Qg5 would run into 24.Rae1 and the pin on the e5 knight decides.

Anand struck back hard in the rapid game, blitzing out his moves and only slowing down after he had pocketed Ivanchuk's queen. Again the white player spent little more than ten minutes on the clock. As Anand walked into the analysis room an amused Peter Leko asked him, 'Vishy, why the hurry?' As if he didn't know. Anand explained that he didn't believe that Black’s 20…cxd3 was such a good move, although he only found out as the game continued. 'I though I'd have some compensation after 21.Nxh4 dxc2, but I had no idea that Black's position would go downhill so quickly.' A modest assessment of a ruthless act of destruction.

The rapid game was less clean. An aggressive Leko got a wonderful set-up from the opening and might have posed his opponent huge problems had he continued 18.Ne4 (when after 18…cxd4 he continues 19.Qf4). However, after the immediate 18.Qf4 the game was messy. Leko's saw his hopes vanish when Black played 20…Bxg5 (probably the move he missed). Aronian took over and calmly he hauled in the point after 37 moves.

Results round 3:

Blindfold: Leko-Vallejo 1-0, Gelfand-Aronian 1-0, Carlsen-Svidler 1/2-1/2, Van Wely-Radjabov 0-1, Morozevich-Kramnik 0-1, Ivanchuk-Anand 1-0.

Rapid: Vallejo-Leko 1/2-1/2, Aronian-Gelfand 1-0, Svidler-Carlsen 1/2-1/2, Radjabov-Van Wely 0-1, Kramnik-Morozevich 1/2-1/2, Anand-Ivanchuk 1-0.

Standings after the third round: 1. Kramnik 5.0; 2. Aronian 4.5; 3. Ivanchuk 4.0; 4. Anand 3.5; 5-8. Gelfand, Svidler, Morozevich, Leko 3.0 each; 9. Carlsen 2.5; 10. Vallejo 2.0; 11. Radjabov 1.5; 12. Van Wely 1.0.

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