The games are getting more and more tense at the Serbia Chess Open for this 3rd round! In the Masters tournament, on the first 15 boards, there are 7 draws, a sign that the tournament is getting more and more difficult for every player!
The performance of the day goes to the Azeri international master Babazada Khazar (2431 Elo) who beats at board 1 the grandmaster Sarana Alexey (2670 Elo).
Babazada-Sarana
Position after 36.Be6
In this tense position from a Sicilian Najdorf, Sarana makes a big mistake with 36...f3. A very natural move, but White played the very strong 37.Re1. The black queen has to move, if it goes to f4, the white queen enters b6 and if it goes to f2 as in the game, 38.Qc3 is decisive, the black king suddenly suffers a very strong attack that the Azeri player managed to convert with precision.
Other performances in the Masters tournament are the following:
- Ukrainian grandmaster Vitaliy Bernardskiy (2617 Elo) drew against woman grandmaster Injac Teodora (2384 Elo).
- Indian grandmaster Puranik Abhimanyu (2608 Elo) drew against Moldovan international master Ceres Dragos (2380 Elo).
At this point, only 8 players scored 100% in the Masters tournament and they will play together on the first 4 boards tomorrow. Big clash tomorrow board 1 between grandmaster Jumabayev Rinat (2628 Elo) and Turkish grandmaster Sanal Vahap (2576 Elo).
In the Amateurs tournament, the games are extremely tense. On the first 10 boards, lower rated players drew or won in 6 of them! Only 12 players have 100% of the points including one of the favourites, the Serbian international master Andrijevic Milan (2184 Elo).
Don't miss the start of the games tomorrow, round 4 at 4pm!
You can follow the games live on all the major online chess platforms, here are the links below:
https://live.chessbase.com/en/watch/2nd-Serbia-Open-Masters-2022/
https://live.followchess.com/#!serbia-open-masters-2022
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/serbia-chess-open-2022-masters/1/1/1
https://www.chess.com/events/2022-serbia-chess-open
https://lichess.org/broadcast/serbian-open-2022-masters/round-1/Oh7R8Qaa
Julien Song
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