Shark survives and swindles the clash of the leaders, Adams’ technique also shines
The post about best chess quotes included a quote that is very appropriate for Vugar Gashimov memoriald 2017 round 3:
” A good player is always lucky “
Round 3 saw the clash of two players that scored two wins in the first two rounds.
Pavel Eljanov, a solid player and brilliant technician on one side, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, the creative tactical genius on the other side.
The opening phase saw the fianchetto variation of the King’s Indian, in which Mamedyarov tried the trendy Rb8-a6-b5 plan with Black, that Eljanov countered with the move a4.
A complicated middlegame struggle ensued, which was very hard to understand for a patzer like me.
However, since Mamedyarov was confined to his last three ranks, Eljanov somehow managed to outmaneovre him and gained a significant advantage.
Alas, just after time control, he blundered everything away and ever-so-crafty Mamedyarov found a tactical sequence that assured him at least equality.
However, it was suddenly White who had to be precise and Eljanov had to find a narrow path to salvage a half a point.
Considering that he spoilt a position before and that his position was very hard to play, it is no wonder that he crumbled in the endgame and let Mamedyarov score his third win in a row.
Trully a fantastic performance.
In other games, Michael Adams’ technical genius evoked the rare a6!? in the Queen’s gambit and went on to score a very clean win with the black pieces.
The remaining three games saw relatively quick hand shakes.
If we exclude the Topalov – Kramnik game HAR HAR HAR.