B-CHESS: Teimour Radjabov and Alexander Morozevich joint leaders in Tal Memorial

Alexander Morozevich defeated his compatriot Alexander Grischuk in the third round of the 2012 Tal Memorial to catch Teimour Radjabov on the shared first place.

Despite the slightly eccentric play in the opening, Grischuk actually picked up the initiative some time in the late middlegame. But then he underestimated the counter-sacrifice which gave Morozevich excellent play.

Black King was perfectly safe, even with the enemy g6-pawn and h7-Rook, while his White counterpart came under the barrage fire of the Black pieces. Grischuk was forced to give up on move 60.

Alexander Morozevich

Levon Aronian played a risky opening against the tail-ender Luke McShane and came under the strong attack. The Englishman, obviously not losing the spirit after the poor tournament start, neatly converted the advantage into the full point.

The games Carlsen – Caruana, Radjabov – Kramnik and Nakamura – Tomashevsky were drawn.

Live games with commentary and computer analysis

Luke McShane

Round 3 results:
Carlsen – Caruana draw
Grischuk – Morozevich 0-1
Radjabov – Kramnik draw
Aronian – McShane 0-1
Nakamura – Tomashevsky draw

Round 3 standings:
1-2. Morozevich, Radjabov – 2,5; 3. Kramnik – 2; 4-5. Aronian, Carlsen – 1,5; 6-10. Grischuk, Caruanа, McShane, Nakamura, Tomashevsky – 1.

Round 4 pairings (June 12th): Morozevich – Radjabov, Carlsen – Grischuk, Kramnik – Aronian, McShane – Nakamura and Caruana – Tomashevsky. Monday is the rest day.

Photos by Eteri Kublashvili