Vaishali Plays Brilliancy As Anna Muzychuk, Tan Take Lead

We are three rounds into the 2023 FIDE Grand Swiss and nobody's left on a perfect score in the Open. In the Women's, two players won to continue their perfect run.

GMs Tan Zhongyi and Anna Muzychuk are the two players left with a perfect score across both sections, after respectively defeating GM Antoaneta Stefanova and IM Irina Bulmaga. IM Vaishali R's vicious attack against IM Leya Garifullina, finishing with a brilliant bishop sacrifice, is our Game of the Day.

In the Open, there is a 10-way tie for the lead after just three decisive results on the top 19 boards. GMs Javokhir Sindarov, Sam Sevian, and Marc'Andria Maurizzi joined the party at the top on Friday. GM Alexei Shirov nearly beat GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov too, but after seven hours of play, he stumbled into a perpetual check in the queen endgame.

Round four begins on Saturday, October 28, at 9:30 a.m. ET / 15:30 CEST / 7 p.m. IST.  

• Women's
• Open

Three rounds are in the books, but we are far from talking about who's most likely to win in either section. Dozens of players are still in contention.

Women's

Board one featured a clash of former women's world champions, Tan vs. Stefanova. The former gained an advantage out of the opening based on the backward b6-pawn and, starting with 24.Bg5!, switched her attention to the kingside. 

The game actually ended quickly from there, and Naroditsky summarized: "That was feeble resistance from Stefanova. She just collapsed immediately!" adding that 28...Be7? walked into the "third-grade-level" move 29.Bd3.  

Anna Muzychuk also shot to a perfect 3/3 after defeating Bulmaga. She won a pawn in the middlegame and converted the opposite-color bishop endgame (with rooks). 

Top seeds GM Aleksandra Goryachkina and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk started slow with two draws in the first two rounds. The former won her first game, against WGM Divya Deshmukh, but Kosteniuk made a third draw in her game against IM Eline Roebers. 

Three players trail the leaders by half a point. They are IMs Bibisara Assaubayeva and Vaishali, along with GM Elisabeth Paehtz.

Paehtz put an end to WGM Meruert Kamalidenova's 2/2 perfect run. Meanwhile, Assaubayeva won a fierce attacking game against IM Gunay Mammadzada.

Vaishali played the white side of the Sicilian Grand Prix Attack and castled queenside, an idea both commentators said they'd never seen before. The game plan can be summarized as "please take my bishop" as she left her attacked bishop on c4 for four moves before sacrificing it with 16.Bxe6!!.

Interestingly, Vaishali played this same long-castles idea in the 2021 FIDE Grand Swiss against Assaubayeva. GM Nihal Sarin, her countryman, repeated the idea in 2022. 

This fantastic, 25-move victory is our Game of the Day, annotated by GM Rafael Leitao below. 

Speaking of bishop sacrifices, IM Stavroula Tsolakidou played a brilliancy against WGM Dinara Wagner, which also featured one of those. It was a great rebound by the Greek IM after blundering in time trouble the day before. 

"Here comes the cold shower," says Peter Leko!#FIDEGrandSwiss pic.twitter.com/pLMXykIL7T

— chess24.com (@chess24com) October 27, 2023

The pairing to watch on Saturday is board one, Anna Muzychuk vs. Tan. Assaubayeva will play Paehtz and Vaishali will play the other Muzychuk sister, GM Mariya Muzychuk, who is on 2/3 after surviving a lost position. 13 other players are on the same score. 

Round 3 Standings | Top 20 

(Full results here.)

Open

Compared to the previous rounds, the top boards slowed down. It's still early in the tournament and immense risks are not yet necessary for the leaders.

After breaking 2800 on the live ratings in the previous round, GM Fabiano Caruana's race to the top was stunted by GM Erwin l'Ami. It was a 4...a6 Queen's Gambit Declined where both played their cards close to the chest, without much risk. Draw.

Kazakh IM Ramazan Zhalmakhanov, who's beaten two players over 2600 already, continued his impressive run by drawing with Black against GM Alireza Firouzja.

After the game, Firouzja said of his dark horse opponent: "For sure, he should be a grandmaster at least!" About qualifying for the Candidates, he later said: "I want to try here first, and then if not possible... I have to play the Sinquefield Cup after," where he can hope to increase his rating for the spot awarded to the highest-rated player eligible.

To find a decisive result, you'd have to look as far down as board seven, where Sindarov (2658) upset longtime super-GM Levon Aronian (2742). It was a complicated rook endgame where the Armenian-American GM chose the wrong move with his king.

Two boards down, Shirov had been winning for hours against Abdusattorov. An attack eventually led to a complicated endgame with two extra pawns for the Latvian-Spanish grandmaster, who handled the complications with nearly impeccable technique. 

After over seven hours, it was the last game in the playing hall, finishing shortly after GM Hans Niemann beat GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov to reach a 2/3 score.

Every chess player knows that feeling. Winning for hours and hours, and spoiling it with one move. Words can't do that pain justice, but what a save by the resilient Uzbek talent, who never gave up hope. The game ended in a draw on move 115.

Sevian, also joining the group of leaders, won on the black side of the Benoni Defense against GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan.

He said: "I really wanted to get a fighting game" and "we were both out of book on move eight or nine." 

Sevian, who played in the 11-round U.S. Championship before this, commented: "I only had two days, so I just went home, slept for 12 hours, and got ready for the next one!"

 I just went home, slept for 12 hours, and got ready for the next one!

—Sam Sevian

In round two, the new World Junior Champion Maurizzi upset GM Matthias Bluebaum. In round three, he scored his career-best win (by rating) against GM Gabriel Sargissian (2686) to join the leaders as well.

33 Players Are Half A Point Behind

GM Hikaru Nakamura was the highest-rated player sitting on one point after two rounds. He reached a positive score for the first time after winning a very complicated battle with queen and bishop vs. queen and knight. 

The point of no return was just after the time control, and GM Aryan Chopra could have kept dynamic equality with 41...Nxf3! (which he saw but rejected, Nakamura confirms) but instead plunged for the complications with 41...Qxb4?.  

Nakamura found the only winning move 42.Qd3!, threatening Bc3 and Bxf6, and the result was never in doubt from there. Black's kingside collapsed.

In his analysis video, Nakamura notes that he's risen to the number-four spot on the live rating list, thanks to Firouzja's draw. He points out that this may become important for qualifying for the Candidates by rating later on, in January. 

You can listen to Nakamura in the video below talking about a "very, very big win":

Brilliancies, Miniatures, Queen Sacrifices, And The Carousel Of Tragedies Continues

Bluebaum recovered from his loss to Maurizzi overnight by beating GM Vahap Sanal in just 18 moves. Leko said: "It can happen in bullet... but it should never, ever happen even in a blitz game, not to speak about classical chess!" He's now on a 50 percent score, 1.5/3. 

Leko: "This is shocking! This almost feels like a bullet game, that it can happen in bullet, but it should never, ever happen even in a blitz game, not to mention classical chess"#FIDEGrandSwiss pic.twitter.com/IJxRFkjbnN

— chess24.com (@chess24com) October 27, 2023

Another miniature was GM Shant Sargsyan's 25-move victory against Li Wu to reach 1.5/3. After 22...Qd8? 23.Qg4! it just suddenly transpired that Black, to move, had no way to defend the g7-square. Curiously, the novelty only came on move 20.

From a slightly better position, GM Denis Lazavik pressed the "fireworks" button and got burned in response. His opponent, GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek found a stunning queen sacrifice and won the game to reach 2/3:

GM Vincent Keymer presented this queen sac to chess fans as he defeated GM Pouya Idani to gain his second point:

No mercy from Vincent Keymer as he sacrifices his queen!#FIDEGrandSwiss pic.twitter.com/CfYxpSDcMP

— chess24.com (@chess24com) October 27, 2023

If the queen sacrifice is one of chess' greatest joys, then the queen blunder is an equivalent pain. GM Benjamin Gledura forsook his queen in one move with over 30 minutes on the clock. 

"That literally is a queen blunder in one move!" says Naroditsky. #FIDEGrandSwiss pic.twitter.com/N6WMtt8QWm

— chess24.com (@chess24com) October 27, 2023

GM Kirill Shevchenko, on move 29 against GM Rinat Jumabayev, lost on time in a decent position.

An insane game in the Sicilian Dragon deserves to be mentioned, even though it ended in a draw. Naroditsky showed some beautiful fantasy lines in GM Temur Kuybokarov vs. GM Nijat Abasov, but it took several more hours to end, in a rook and knight vs. rook endgame. 

On Saturday, the top five boards will have the same score, 2.5/3. Sindarov will have the black pieces against Caruana on the first board. Dangerous youngsters to watch out for at the top are Maurizzi, who plays GM Andrey Esipenko on board four, and the IM-wonder Zhalmakhanov against GM Alexey Sarana on board five. 

 Round 3 Standings | Top 20 

(Full results here.)

The 2023 FIDE Grand Swiss (FGS) is one of the events of the FIDE World Championship cycle, with the top two players qualifying for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. The FGS starts on October 25 at 9:30 a.m. ET/15:30 CEST/19:00 IST and features a $460,000 prize fund.

The 2023 FIDE Women's Grand Swiss (FWGS) features $140,000 prize fund and runs concurrently. The top two players qualify for the 2024 Women's Candidates Tournament.

Previous Coverage:

• Caruana Beats Niemann, Returns To 2800 Club
• Caruana Leads Pack Of 32 Winners
• FIDE Grand Swiss 2023: Who Will Qualify For A Shot At World Title?