Candidates R3 – Three decisive games

From March 14 to April 1, 2013, FIDE and AGON – the World Chess Federation’s commercial partner – are staging the 2013 Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2013. It will be the strongest tournament of its kind in history. The venue is The IET, 2 Savoy Place, London. The Prize Fund to be shared by the players totals €510,000. The winner of the Candidates will become the Challenger to Viswanathan Anand who has reigned as World Champion since 2007. The main sponsor for the Candidates is State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic SOCAR, which has sponsored elite events chess in the past.

Round three express report

The playing hall in the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) just before the start,
with arbiters Carlos Oliveira Dias (standing) and David Sedgwick preparing for round three

Svidler-Radjabov
Radjabov went back to the King's Indian Defense in this game, and used a Benko style gambit with a6 and b5!? At some point he got his pawn back, but at the cost of a rook for two minor pieces. Svidler consolidated excellently and converted a full point.

Ivanchuk-Aronian
A somewhat passive opening from Ivanchuk simply gave Aronian the pair of bishops. After trying to be overly creative the Ukrainian's position kept getting worse and worse, until it became impossible to stop both of Black's bishops, as White's knights were slowly pushed back. Here's a quick description of what transpired:

Armenian GM Levon Aronian who played the most exciting game of the day

Kramnik-Grischuk
The Gruenfeld is always a solid choice, and this was proven yet again today. Kramnik was able to obtain a structural advantage from the opening, but Grischuk simply gave away his weak pawn for activity, which was sufficient to hold the draw.

Gelfand-Carlsen
The Cambridge Springs makes a comeback to top level chess, but the opening results were nothing out of the ordinary. Gelfand got a slight edge that kept slipping away from him slowly. Carlsen eventually got two strong passed pawns in the queenside, but his king was too weak to win and a Gelfand should've used this to force a draw. Instead he relied on his passed h-pawn and kept allowing Black to push his pawns until eventually they could not be stopped.

Magnus Carlsen worked his usual magic, winning an "equal" game against Boris Gelfand

Express summary by GM Alejandro Ramirez

Round wrap-up by GM Daniel King

Current standings

Pictures by Ray Morris-Hill

Official broadcast of the round

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Schedule and results

The games start at 14:00h = 2 p.m. London time = 15:00h European time, 17:00h Moscow, 8 a.m. New York. You can find your regional starting time here. Note that Britain and Europe switch to Summer time on March 31, so that the last two rounds will start an hour earlier for places that do not swich or have already done so (e.g. USA). The commentary on Playchess begins one hour after the start of the games and is free for premium members.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.