Wijk aan Zee 2012, Round 3: Carlsen Beats Aronian and Leads
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 8:15PM
Dennis Monokroussos in Magnus Carlsen, Wijk aan Zee 2012

Garry Kasparov's all-time rating record is in trouble! Kasparov reached 2851 (twice, if I recall correctly), and with his win over world #2 Levon Aronian the young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen has taken the lead in Wijk aan Zee and reached a live rating of 2842.6. (Egads - he's still just barely 21 years old!)

Carlsen's win over Aronian started smooth and grew bumpy, but in the end he brought home the point and his score of 2.5/3 bumped Aronian out of first. The latter is still in second with 2 points, tied with Teimour Radjabov, who crushed David Navara, and Fabiano Caruana, who drew with Hikaru Nakamura. The round's other winner was Sergey Karjakin, who lost his first two games but bounced back with a win over Anish Giri.

In the B-group, there was a lot more blood: five of the seven games finished with a winner. One was Pentala Harikrishna's victory over countrywoman Dronavalli Harika; he leads the group with a 3-0 score. Erwin L'Ami is in clear second with 2.5 points and Sergei Tiviakov is the lone remaining plus score, with two points. Fans of Jan Timman will be pleased to learn that he bounced back to an even score with a win over Ukranian prodigy Ilya Nyzhnyk. It took 97 moves, but he ground the youngster down in a rook ending that became a queen ending. The finale was especially nice, and what one would expect from a great study composer like Timman:

Timman played the spectacular 97.g7!! and Nyznhyk resigned. It's not the only winning move, but it's the fastest and most elegant. After 97...Qxg7+ 98.Kf5+ Kh7 (98...Kh5 99.Qh2#) 99.Qc7 eliminates the queens, when the b-pawn will promote.

In the C-group Maxim Turov continues to roll. The second seed beat Lisa Schut (tied for the second-lowest seed) is at 3-0. Meanwhile, top seed Matthew Sadler only managed a draw with Elizabeth Paehtz, and is in a tie for 3rd-6th at 2-1. In second - for now - is bottom seed Etienne Goudriaan. Along with Turov, he was the only winner in the group, and it propelled him to a 2.5/3 score.

Group A Pairings for Round 4:

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