1. Bilbao. Michael Adams continues to lead, holding on in round 3 for a draw against Levon Aronian. In the other game, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tied up Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's forces, then won by liquidating into a rook and bishop ending where he would wind up two pawns ahead. Adams thus has 2/3 at the halfway point, while Aronian and Vachier-Lagrave have a point and a half.
UPDATE: I was reminded in the comments that they are using the 3-1-0 scoring system, so the totals are Adams 5, Vachier-Lagrave 4, Aronian 3 and Mamedyarov 2.
A note about yesterday's post, in which I noted that Adams' defeat of Vachier-Lagrave indicated that Adams was building on his success back in Dortmund. A couple of commentators seemed to object, noting that Vachier-Lagrave lost on time, and in a "dead drawn" position according to one of them. By way of reply, I'm surprised that my anodyne statement provoked a couple of people to object. At any rate, I would note that losing on time isn't like being hit on the head by a meteorite, a random occurrence that just "happens" to a person. Vachier-Lagrave didn't become a 2740+ player by losing games on time for no reason. Adams gave him enough problems of a sufficiently challenging sort that Vachier-Lagrave was unable to solve them within the allotted time.
I'd add to that while the position was drawn it wasn't yet dead drawn in the sense of being a position that's a known technical draw or one where no accurate moves are required. White can still fiddle around a bit in the final position without allowing a perpetual check or returning the extra pawn. (I'm not claiming that the position is anything but a draw, just that one shouldn't look at all the 0.00s on the monitor and think it's like rook vs. rook or defending king and h-pawn vs. king on the queening square.) Anyway, even if it is dead drawn, see the previous point about losing on time.
2. Kings Tournament. Fabiano Caruana drew with Ruslan Ponomariov, maintaining a share of first with a game in hand. He has 1.5/2, while Ponomariov and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu have 1.5/3. Nisipeanu defeated Wang Hao (.5/2) in the day's other game while Teimour Radjabov (1/2) had the bye.
3. Russian Championship. Peter Svidler drew his second game of the tournament, and leads with 4/5. Nikita Vitiugov is still half a point back after drawing his game. He is tied with Vladimir Kramnik, who defeated tailender (but not at all bottom seed) Alexander Motylev with the black pieces. In the remaining four rounds Svidler seems to have the easiest schedule based on his opponents' places on the crosstable while Vitiugov has the hardest, forced to face the top four players (other than himself).
The rating flip-flops on the live list continue, with Kramnik back in second, Aronian in third and Caruana in fourth. I think that if Caruana wins the Kings Tournament, hits 2800 and leapfrogs at least one of Aronian and Kramnik it will be very difficult for whoever organizes the Candidates to avoid giving him the wildcard. But it depends on when the organizer is named. If Nakamura (or maybe even Gelfand?!) wins Wijk aan Zee in January that player would be strongly in the mix. Or if London hosts the Candidates and Adams somehow manages to hold on and win Bilbao, he might get selected. Still, I think if Caruana hits 2800, it will be very difficult for an organizer of any country to reject him.