MTel R3 Express: Cowboy beats Indian to take the lead

Round three express

Standings

Round 3 wrap-up: This may not be the Gata Kamsky of 1995, but don't tell that to Vishy Anand. From what we can tell, this new version (contact lenses, better haircut, 2-0 score against Anand) is even more dangerous than the Kamsky who rose to face Karpov in a 1996 FIDE world championship match after splitting a pair of candidates matches with Anand. (Anand beat Kamsky in the cycle that led to Kasparov. Both lost their respective world championship matches.) The Indian star was leading the MTel tournament after starting out with two beautiful wins with black. But just like last January at Corus Wijk aan Zee, Kamsky knocked Anand out of the lead.

The difference is that this time Kamsky doesn't have a pile of losses to go with the victory. He's in first place at the strongest tournament of the year after three rounds. He achieved a favorable rook endgame with black out of a Ruy Lopez (classical play was ever his strong suit) and Anand was unable to defend. 51.Rd5 is our humble suggestion for a late improvement. It's totally lost after 52.Kg4 Rd6! It looks like it's time to stop talking about Kamsky as a special comeback case and just be afraid, be very afraid. He has another stern test in round five, however: black against FIDE champ Topalov.

Topalov held Ponomariov to a draw, or maybe it was the other way around? An unbalanced endgame got wild and crazy and it was Super Mariov and his extra piece forcing the repetition against Topalov's pawns. Peter Svidler's Grunfeld is out of the shop after being totalled in Linares. A sharp game against Bacrot led to many exchanges and a relatively short draw.

Games annotated by GM Mihail Marin tomorrow in separate article

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Schedule and results