London Chess Classic, Round 3: McShane Still Leads, Anand Beats Carlsen
In terms of decisive results, things slowed down today, but the fighting spirit was as strong as ever. Anand took his sweet time about it, but he finally managed to break down Carlsen's fortress in an ending with queens, rooks and bishops. Meanwhile, Kramnik tried to out-McShane McShane (see last years's event, when McShane sitzfleisched Short to death in a super-long game), but after about 140 moves reconciled himself to a draw. Adams-Short and Nakamura-Howell were less epic draws, although the latter game was remarkable as a feat of pre-game preparation. Nakamura used something like 10 minutes to make his first 30 moves or so, and was apparently in his pre-game prep through his 32nd move! Howell used up plenty of time, and it was time well spent.
Standings After Round 3:
1. McShane 7 (+2 =1 [remember the 3-1-0 scoring])
2-3. Nakamura, Anand 5 (+1 =2)
4-5. Kramnik, Adams 4 (+1 -1 =1)
6. Carlsen 3 (+1 -2)
7. Howell 2 (-1 =2)
8. Short 1 (-2 =1)
Round 4 Pairings:
Kramnik - Howell
Carlsen - Nakamura
Short - Anand
McShane - Adams
Tournament site here; games (by a guest annotator), hopefully later.
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