After the rest day, the players in the Superbet Chess Classic came out ready to do battle, and in terms of the number of decisive games and the games' length, it was one of the most fighting rounds of the tournament. There was only one short game, and it was Levon Aronian's massacre - with Black! - of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
That was a genuinely odd game, as Aronian chose a line he has used many times before. It was Vachier-Lagrave who tried something unusual, Aronian replied with good moves that would have come up in MVL's prep with the computer, and then MVL went from one error after another: first an inaccuracy, then a series of three errors of increasing magnitude. We all have days where it would have been better to stay in bed; this was such a day for Vachier-Lagrave.
The win allowed Aronian to catch Wesley So in a tie for first. So only managed a draw, thanks to Richard Rapport's fine prep. Rapport found a nice pawn sac that always gave him equality (in the sense of a more or less certain draw, not in the sense of ever having winning chances), first in the form of the bishop pair, and then thanks to the opposite-colored bishops.
The day's other winner was Leinier Dominguez, who upset Bogdan-Daniel Deac's Cinderella story in a long, very up-and-down game. At one point Deac enjoyed a winning advantage, but for most of the first half of the game it was a roughly balanced battle between Dominguez's bishop pair and Deac's extra pawn. In the second time control, both sides made multiple, serious errors, but the overall trend was in favor of Dominguez's two bishops against Deac's rook and pawn. It's rare that the side with the rook can survive that material imbalance, and while there were a couple of subtle tactical opportunities that would have allowed the improbable to occur, the usual result ensued.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alireza Firouzja played an even longer game, almost making it to 100 moves. Mamedyarov pressed throughout, but remains in last place after the draw. Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi also drew their game after a characteristically thrilling Petroff. Semi-mandatory Petroff joke aside, Nepo had some pull when Caruana messed up his preparation, but not enough to make something out of it.
Here are the games, analyzed to varying degrees, and here's what's on tap for tomorrow's round: