FIDE Candidates Finals G3: Strong novelty... quick draw

From 3 to 27 May 2011 the FIDE Candidates matches are being held in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, with eight strong GMs competing to qualify as Challenger for the 2012 World Champion match. Time controls in the four regular games are 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. In case of a tie there will be four rapid chess games, and if the tie is still not broken then up to five two-game blitz matches 5'+3". Finally there may be a sudden-death final decider. The prize fund of the candidates is 500,000 Euros.
 

Finals - Game three

The third round of the candidates was quite disappointing, and not so much because it was a fourteen-move draw, but the circumstances. Had it just been a typical ‘grandmaster draw’, one might still echo this sentiment, however that wasn’t really the story. Grischuk chose a rare move in the Queen’s Gambit Declined (9.g3), played only once before by Uhlmann-Hjartarson in 1984, and ran into a strong and unpleasant novelty (9...b5!) right there and then.

Thinking he would have the surprise factor, instead the surprise was Grischuk's

As he began to study it, it was clear he had not seen this move at all, and was not
happy about it.

Getting ready to go into a deep think

Half an hour later he was still pondering his continuation

The pawn sacrifice could not be turned down, and in return Black obtained development tempi against White’s queen as well as broad open lines for his bishop pair. All in all, it promised to be a fascinating game, and just as the spectators were settling down for the upcoming struggle…. Draw!?!

On the live Russian video, the groans of the commentators were clearly audible at this

Grischuk,Alexander (2747) - Gelfand,Boris (2733) [D53]
WCh Candidates Kazan RUS (3.3), 21.05.2011

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Qb3 dxc4 8.Qxc4 0-0 9.g3 b5!N

9...Nd7 10.Bg2 e5 11.d5 Nb6 12.Qb3 Bf5 13.Nd2 Rb8 14.0-0 c6 15.e4 Bd7 16.Rfd1 Bg4 17.Bf3 Bh3 18.a4 Bg5 19.a5 Nd7 20.Nc4 1/2-1/2 (84) Uhlmann,W (2505)-Hjartarson,J (2415)/Leningrad 1984/MCL (84) 10.Qxb5 Nd7 11.Bg2 c5 12.0-0 Rb8 13.Qa4 a5 14.dxc5 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]

Remaining schedule

All games start at 15:00h local time – 13:00h Berlin/Paris, 07:00 New York (check your local time here)

Live broadcast

The games are being broadcast live on the FIDE web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. In addition you can watch the games live on a regular browser on our live broadcast site, which can be accessed in any regular browser, even Apple, without the need to download a special client.

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The Russian Chess Federation is providing excellent hi-res live video coverage from
the playing hall in Kazan, with live commentary (in Russian).

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