Viswanathan Anand scored a nice win over Anish Giri. In a variation of the Berlin defence White gained a pawn majority on the kingside after exchanging his light-squared bishop for Black's c6-knight, which he used to arrange his pieces on strong squares. After an inaccuracy from Giri, Anand got a strong passed e-pawn, and when Giri weakened his king position so as not to be crushed by the white pawns, Anand moved in for the kill.
By contrast, the game between Magnus Carlsen and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was unspectacular. Although Carlsen tried to put pressure on Mamedyarov, after 37 moves, there was a balanced queen ending on the board and the game ended in a draw.
According to Norwegian chess journalist Tarjei Svensen, Carlsen is unbeaten in 46 consecutive games at classical time controls. In the live world rankings, Carlsen is now 33 points ahead of Fabiano Caruana with an Elo of 2849.
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich performs the ceremonial first move | Photo: ShamkirChess.com
Mamedyarov did not seem to be worried about the game | Photo: ShamkirChess.com
David Navara scored his first victory in the tournament. After a small tactical inaccuracy in the Meran variation of the Semi-Slav, Ding Liren found himself in a worse endgame.
Teimour Radjabov and Sergey Karjakin made a lively draw. Radjabov gave up a pawn on the 22nd move, for which he got active play and tactical threats as compensation. Karjakin bypassed all the traps, but he could not keep his pawn. After 40 moves, the material equality was restored and one move later, the game ended in a draw.
Teimour Radjabov | Photo: ShamkirChess.com
The third victory of the day was provided by Alexander Grischuk. Facing Veselin Topalov, the Russian number two demonstrated how strong the pair of bishops can be.
Alexander Grischuk | Photo: ShamkirChess.com
Friday is a rest day in Shamkir, and play will resume on Saturday.
Commentary by GM Arkadij Naiditsch
Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
