Like I wrote yesterday, it’s easy to be original and play badly. That is happening to Jobava right now. He continued in his original style against Saric and while he was playing well he got a big advantage. But then he pushed too hard with the originality while forgetting objectivity and was duly punished.

17 Ke3? just pushing too far (17 f4 or 17 h4 was normal and good)

It’s strange to see Radjabov playing the KID with white. It takes a Chinese to try the KID against Radjabov and after surviving several unpleasant moments Ding Liren did emerge victorious! It’s worth noting that Radjabov employed the ever-popular Makagonov line against his favourite opening (5 Nf3 and 6 h3).

29 Qh6? the decisive mistake

After 29…Rb8 all black’s pieces attacked white’s king. The only way was to play 29 Qh5 and then Nf4, trying to exchange queens.

Decent people pay at least twice for their missed opportunities. I don’t know him personally, but van Wely seems like a decent guy. He paid yesterday for his missed wins against Wojtaszek in round 2, when he lost badly to Ivanchuk and he was doomed today even though he had white against Carlsen. He even tried to curb his usual aggressive instincts and played a “drawish line” (his own words) but to no avail. As for Carlsen, it seems yesterday’s loss shook him and brought him back to his senses – he got rid of the experiments in the opening and played a good game, using van Wely’s mistakes with his usual precision.

The remaining 3 games were drawn. Giri didn’t want to create much with black against Hou Yifan’s solid Guioco Piano, but I find it strange as all the moves in that game were the comp’s first choices. I’m sure Giri had it all prepared beforehand and in fact the most intriguing moment of the game was in this position when Giri spent 25 minutes on his move:

To play (11…Rf3) or to draw (11…Bf5)?

Giri’s choice perhaps confirmed Carlsen’s remark from before the tournament.

Caruana and So played a balanced Spanish which after correct play by both sides led to a draw. Worth noticing is So’s early novelty in a well-known position:

9…Nb8!? The Breyer maneuver hasn’t been tried before here

Aronian tried to squeeze water from stone against Wojtaszek, but he wasn’t successful. I found his opening choice too sterile, but perhaps he was afraid of running into some Anand preparation (Wojtaszek is an Anand second of many years).

Tomorrow’s the first rest day and then the participants play round 5 in Rotterdam, bringing back the memories of the famous AVRO from 1938 when the participants played almost every round in a different place. Not very good for concentration and preparation, but let’s see how these changes affect the players of the 21st century.

Wojtaszek didn’t have to do anything special to win, he only had to keep cool and collect what was offered. Carlsen’s blunder of 28..Qe6 came in an already bad position. I can understand Carlsen’s desire to experiment in the openings and play adventurous chess, especially now as he’s safe with his title for two more years, but loss of objectivity and bad play will lead him nowhere. Or, as Tarrasch said: It is not enough to be a good player, one must also play well.

28…Qe6? 29 g4, winning the bishop

The over-ambitious and too-original bug also got another victim today – Jobava. Today’s game against Ding Liren is a clear example of what happens to original players like Jobava when they don’t play well and still insist on playing in the same style – they lose very badly in about 20 moves. This loss was almost identical to his loss to Mamedyarov at the Olympiad, compare the games in the notes.

Another game that was decided by a one-move blunder was So-Aronian. In a very interesting and complex position with mutual chances Aronian lost a piece. This usually doesn’t happen to these people, so it’s difficult to explain it.

20…Ng8?? 21 Bh5, game over

Van Wely got what he deserved after yesterday’s missed wins. He got swarmed over by Ivanchuk in a Sicilian that quickly became winning for white. My life-long experience with both colours in the Sicilian tells me that black is worse already by move 10, his set-up with Bd7 and Rc8 is way too slow. The final position shows the pleasant sadistic feelings that Ivanchuk must have enjoyed.

Black resigned.

The Frenchman (Vachier) and Radjabov followed in the footsteps of Leko and Kramnik in a popular line of the QGD with 5 Bf4. It was interesting to see that after playing quickly for 23 moves, the Frenchman played his novelty 23 h4 after which Radjabov thought for some time and replied with the human move 23..a4, fixing the pawn on a3, which my comp mentions only at depth 33 as a second choice. This resulted in 26 minutes of thought by the Frenchman, a clear sign of either too shallow preparation or too weak hardware. This was the only interesting moment in the game, as it was predestinied to draw, such is the character of the line chosen.

Saric and Hou Yifan were obviously shaken by their losses and this resulted in a wobbly game. Hou was winning, after the very bad 16 a4 by Saric (16 Bd3 instead is much better), but after mutual mistakes the game ended in a draw.

16 a4? Bc3 and black is practically winning

Chuchelov’s students, former (Giri) and present (Caruana) slugged it out in another QGD with 5 Bf4, with Caruana playing his preferred move 7…Ne4. Giri improved on Anand’s play on move 10, but it didn’t seem like something big, as black was OK. After the double-edged exchange sacrifice by Caruana (which wasn’t forced) Giri had all the chances but Caruana defended well and could draw by perpetual. And here comes the most instructive moment – when after a long defence he realised he wasn’t in any danger of losing anymore, Caruana decided not to take the draw and play on! This kind of keen sense of the dynamics in the position and in the players’ heads is a rare gift and Karpov comes to mind immediately, as he was famous of momentarily switching to playing for a win the moment his hard defence brought him an equal position. Giri was on the defensive but up to the task and the game was eventually drawn after 97 moves.

After three rounds we have Caruana and Ivanchuk on 2.5/3 and Carlsen, Aronian, van Wely and Saric on 1/3. It promises to be an exciting tournament as the favourites now have to go through the field and play catch-up!

Caruana and Saric played the slightly forgotten nowadays Zaitsev Variation in the Spanish with Saric repeating the rare 14…a5 which he has played before. It is always dangerous to repeat lines you have played before, especially against people who prepare well. Caruana is one of them and he did show his preparation, but black still had a good game. The game was tense and balanced, but on move 28 we can see what a difference in class means: the higher the class of a player, the longer he can play high-quality moves in tense situations. In other words, world class players rarely crack, and almost never when playing against non-world class players. Saric showed that he can play on equal terms for the good part of the middlegame, but he couldn’t withstand the tension and cracked:

Hou Yifan’s opening choice was strange – in the Panov Caro Kann she entered an endgame a pawn down where the maximum white could hope was to recuperate the material and draw. Surely there are better ways to play for a draw with white! As it happened, she missed these opportunities and Ding Liren returned the material only when he achieved positional advantage in return. Then he went on to win without much trouble.

Aronian and Giri played a topical Grunfeld line which Aronian himself defended with black quite recently – against Radjabov in Beijing in a rapid game. Giri obviously improved on that game, but it has all been played before – only black’s 23rd move was new.

Carlsen didn’t get anything out of the opening (a Rubinstein Nimzo-Indian) against his former second So. In his own words he felt “outplayed” by So in the middlegame and had to look for an opportunity to draw, which he found easily.

Jobava and Vachier played a theoretical draw in the Classical Dragon, nothing much to add there.

Radjabov and Ivanchuk played a correct game, while van Wely was winning against Wojtaszek, but he somehow managed to miss 3 relatively easy wins after the time control:

Ivanchuk beat Jobava after an inexplicable blunder by the latter on move 42. I somehow get the impression that this was a result of Jobava’s over-confidence: he managed to play a a good game against Ivanchuk implementing a rare idea in the Labourdonnais Sicilian (6…g6) and never felt inferior. Then he played a careless move that cost him the game:

Radjabov introduced a new way (or, rather, discovered the condemned way was possible) to play against the Pirc in his game against van Wely. I have always thought that the early 6 d5 (instead of the usual 6 dc5) gave black an easy play, but apparently things aren’t that simple.

6 d5!? gave white some initiative

It seems Radjabov missed some chances later on in the game and the eternal Dutchman in Wijk managed to draw.

The triple-named Frenchman (Maxime Vachier Lagrave) beat Hou Yifan in a game that was highly tactical and I got the impression that he was always controlling the situation better.

Ding Liren and Caruana played an interesting Grunfeld that was balanced until the Chinese went one step too far with preparatory measures.

Saric played calmly and drew with Aronian and he must be glad to start the tournament with a draw with one of the favourites.

So and Wojtaszek, both highly theoretical players, the latter being Anand’s second for many years now, drew a highly theoretical game in the Najdorf. I’m curious to see how So will do in this tournament, after rising to number 10 in the world – is he there to stay or just an accidental tourist? I tend to incline towards the former, but let’s see.