An interesting round of chess. Three of the games featured R+B vs. R+N endings… the other two games were quickly slashing defeats. After three rounds, none of the three Grandmasters are in the lead!

Christiansen-Akobian, ½,½. For the second round in a row, the wily Grandmaster escaped the throes of defeat. Christiansen stood slightly worse throughout the game as he played a dubious line of the Tarrasch against the French defense. However, his tactical resources kept him afloat. The young Armenian was poised to rush his queenside pawns up the board and played  39…a5?? unwary of Christiansen's last swindling tactic 40. Nd5! After 40…Kf8, white continued with 41.Nf6 and would either check on h7 and f6 forever. Of course, moving the black king to h8 would allow Rh7 mate! A disappointing result for Akobian who is still looking for his first win.

Christiansen found the drawing resource 40.Ne3-d5!

Simutowe-Krush, 0-1. This was a marquee matchup, but was a game largely ignored  by live commentators following the tournament.  The game developed into a thematic Dragon with white employing the 6.Be2 and 7.Be3 line. The game followed well-known paths, but began to heat up after Krush's 14…e5! Her pieces were very active and she fought to wrest the initiative with 20…Rxc3! 21.bxc3 Qxa4, but perhaps she overlooked 22.Bxh6! The point being that after 22…Bxh6 23.Ra1, the piece would eventually be recovered.  The key position occurred after 26.Qb4. It was at this point that black could've played passively and gotten run over, but she continued to search for the initiative. Her hopes were answered when Simutowe played 28.Qxe5? allowing a dangerous attack after 28…Bh3! 29.Re1 Ng4! This combination sent the Zambian reeling as he scurried to find a defense. He found 30.Bf1 and although Krush missed 30…Nf2+ 31.Kg1 Nxd3+ she simplified into a winning endgame and Simutowe simply ran out of moves.

Ehlvest-Muhammad, 1-0. This game was disastrous for Muhammad. After  a tough 89-move loss to Simutowe the previous night, it was important for him to rebound with a decent showing against a strong Grandmaster.  Playing his usual King's Indian, Muhammad experimented with 6…b6!? and could have sought to build a very solid hedgehog-type position after 12…cxd4 which is consistent with the move order.  However, after 13…bxc5, Ehlvest tore into the dark squares with 14.Bh6! and executed a direct assault with 20.e5! Muhammad attempted to organize a defense, but it was too late and the game ended with a nice parting shot… 27.Rxf6!

Bluvsthein-Paschall, 1-0. This game drew attention due to the speculative opening played. Although the Center Counter is a respectable defense and has been played at high levels for many decades, it's always interesting to see it employed.  Paschall played ambitiously, uncorking a pawn sacrifice 5…e5!? for seemingly more than adequate compensation. Black had a huge lead in development but was unable to exploit the centralized white king. The 15-year old Canadian held the position together and deftly established a remote passed pawn. Paschall had to eventually sacrifice a piece for the pawn and hunkered down to establish a drawing fortress. While Bluvshtein closed the position and was on the verge of claiming the point, Paschall had a chance with 68…Rh4+! 69.Kb3 Rb4+! (of course 70.Kxb4 stalemate!) after which 70.Ka3 Rc4 71.Rxc6+ Kb7 72.Rb6+ Kc8! 73.Rxb5 Rxc3+ is a book draw. Instead 68…Re6?? was played white quickly broke the fortress and wrapped up the point.

Perelshteyn-Yudasin, 1-0. Another disastrous game… this time by the Israeli GM. The Caro-Kann quickly became the "Car0-Kan't." There's no point in trying to understand 18…Kf8?? but Perelshteyn quickly pounced on the opportunity by zipping off 19.Bg6! The travesty of this blunder, as commentator Eric Schiller pointed out, is that there was no way to complicate the game and Yudasin would lose even more material in the final position.

Standings: Krush, Perelshteyn, 2½;  Simutowe, Christiansen, Ehlvest, Bluvshtein, 2; Yudasin, 1; Paschall, Akobian, ½; Muhammad, 0.

Cross Table
Round Three Games (playable and downloadable)
All Games (PGN download)