GMs Magnus Carlsen and GM Praggnanandhaa R. proceed to guide the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, now with the utmost rating of 9 factors after three days of play. In second place, 4 factors behind, are GM Levon Aronian and GM Alireza Firouzja. The latter defeated GM Anish Giri within the armageddon sport of their tiebreak.

Carlsen-Aronian 2.5-1.5

Carlsen struck instantly within the first sport of this match, successful as Black with an early …b5 in opposition to the London System. Aronian’s decisive errors got here a lot later although:

With three combating attracts, Carlsen held on to his lead, but it surely required exhausting work. After the match, he mentioned: “Truth be informed, I really feel like I escaped greater than I simply crushed him right now. But it was lots of enjoyable. It was a really, very attention-grabbing, very very tense match, and the result’s nice.”

Praggnanandhaa-Niemann 2.5-1.5

Praggnanandhaa, the opposite chief of the event, began his match with GM Hans Niemann the identical as Carlsen did the opposite day: with a loss in a Rossolimo Sicilian. This time enjoying the white items, Niemann gained a pawn after which performed a superb, technical endgame. Beautiful stuff, the place the chess spoke for itself:

Praggnanandhaa struck again instantly with a win in a widely known endgame arising from the Queen’s Gambit Declined, Exchange Variation. After a draw, Niemann tried it once more in sport 4 and likewise misplaced that one:

Firouzja-Giri 4.5-3.5

The match between Firouzja and Giri was the primary within the event to go all the best way to armageddon. Not solely had been the gamers nonetheless tied after the speedy and the blitz, however they really drew all six video games till then.

Having been underneath stress for a lot of the armageddon sport (getting 4 minutes on the clock vs. 5, however needing solely a draw), Giri at one level collapsed utterly. He did get one level within the standings for making it to the tiebreak:

Le-Duda 2.5-0.5

Having mentioned the longest match of the day, we now arrive on the shortest one. GM Le Quang Liem wanted simply three video games to safe victory in opposition to GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda with two wins in a row, adopted by a draw.

The first sport will need to have been really disappointing for Duda, who was a pawn up with zero(?) shedding possibilities however finally overpressed whereas Le used most of his tactical possibilities in a super-complicated remaining part:

All video games spherical 3

FTX Crypto Cup | Round 3 Standings

The FTX Crypto Cup, the sixth occasion within the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, takes place August 15-21, 2022 on chess24. The format is a round-robin amongst eight gamers, who play a match of 4 speedy video games (15+10) in every spherical. The winner earns $7,500 and three factors. In the case of a tie, a two-game blitz tiebreak is performed (5+3), adopted by an armageddon sport (5 vs. 4). In that case, the winner earns $5,000 and two factors; the loser, $2,500 and one level. The prize fund is $210,000 plus an extra $100,000 tied to the worth of Bitcoin.