Carlsen and Bacrot dominate

The Norwegian and the Frenchman both win their third games to leap ahead of their rivals in the 2010 Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing.
Carlsen now has 4/5 whilst Bacrot a healthy 3.5.

Carlsen played the quiet d2-d3 against the Spanish and was able to deny Topalov any real counterplay throughout the game. Slight kingside pressure led to Carlsen gaining the bishop pair and then later the opening of lines led to him obtaining a dangerous attack. Topalov resigned as Carlsen made a decisive combination involving a queen offer for a mating attack.

Back in form (chessanytime)
Bacrot: on a roll (chessdom)

Bacrot played aggressively by advancing his kingside pawns in the quest for key squares. A second wave of pawn advances in the centre then netted a piece, and despite Wang Yue picking up a few pawns the result was then no longer in doubt.

Viswanathan AnandIND28000.5-0.5Vugar GashimovAZE2719Slav/Grünfeld Defence25
Magnus CarlsenNOR28261-0Veselin TopalovBUL2803Spanish d332
Wang YueCHN27320-1Etienne BacrotFRA2716Queen's Indian Defence42

The third game, Anand-Gashimov was a quiet affair with Gashimov playing the solid, but passive Slav/Grünfeld hybrid. The Azerbaijani found a way to reorganize his pieces and build a brick wall which Anand was unable to topple.

Here are the standings after the third round:

StandingNameCountryRatingPoints
1Magnus CarlsenNOR28264
2Etienne BacrotFRA27163.5
3Viswanathan AnandIND28002.5
4Vugar GashimovAZE27192
5=Veselin TopalovBUL28031.5
5=Wang YueCHN27321.5

Carlsen's third win and Bacrot's hat-trick leave the others trailing in their wake. Anand is on 50% and is perhaps the only other player who can compete for the title.

Here is a summary of the previous rounds:

Round 1:

Viswanathan AnandIND28000.5-0.5Wang YueCHN2732Slav/Grünfeld
Magnus CarlsenNOR28261-0Etienne BacrotFRA2716Scotch Opening
Veselin TopalovBUL28030.5-0.5Vugar GashimovAZE2719Slav Defence

Round 2:

Wang YueCHN27320.5-0.5Vugar GashimovAZE2719Nimzoindian Defence
Etienne BacrotFRA27160.5-0.5Veselin TopalovBUL2803Nimzoindian Defence
Viswanathan AnandIND28000.5-0.5Magnus CarlsenNOR2826Spanish Breyer

Round 3:

Magnus CarlsenNOR28261-0Wang YueCHN2732Petroff Defence
Veselin TopalovBUL28030-1Viswanathan AnandIND2800Queen's Gambit Declined Lasker
Vugar GashimovAZE27190-1Etienne BacrotFRA2716English Opening

Round 4:

Vugar GashimovAZE27190.5-0.5Magnus CarlsenNOR2826Spanish Breyer
Etienne BacrotFRA27161-0Viswanathan AnandIND2800Slav Defence
Veselin TopalovBUL28030.5-0.5Wang YueCHN2732Slav Defence

For those who like to follow the games, in Europe it means an early morning and in America a very short night!

Live games can be watched everyday (except today the 25th which is a rest day!) from 3pm local time Live Games

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Los Angeles 23.30pm

For more information go to the Official site

where there is an option for English!

However for results and statistics I prefer Results


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