Ivanchuk is ahead but Carlsen recovers strongly.

Carlsen and Aronian managed two wins today at the expense of Svidler and Smeets.
Ivanchuk stays ahead in the Blindfold and the overall standings whereas Kramnik has the lead in the rapidplay.

Historically Vladimir Kramnik has been the most successful player at the Melody Amber (with 4 outright victories and two shared) just ahead of Vishwanathan Anand (with 4 outright and one shared). The previous two editions were won by Aronian, but the very first Melody Amber tournament in 1992 was won by Vassily Ivanchuk. Can 'Chuky' win his second title 18 years later?

Anyway so far, so good for him as he is in the lead but it's still early days of course!

Monday's round 3 results:

Blindfold:

After three draws in the first session, Monday's Blindfold games finished in the late afternoon with three Black wins!

The winners were Carlsen, who is now well in his stride, Aronian, after a poor Sunday and finally Ivanchuk who thus took the overall lead after his win over Karjakin.

Alexander GrischukRUS27560.5-0.5Boris GelfandISR2750
Leinier Dominguez PerezCUB27130.5-0.5Ruslan PonomariovUKR2748
Vugar GashimovAZE27400.5-0.5Vladimir KramnikRUS2790
Peter SvidlerRUS27500-1Magnus CarlsenNOR2813
Sergey KarjakinRUS27250-1Vassily IvanchukUKR2748
Jan SmeetsNED26510-1Levon AronianARM2782

In the third round of the rapid games Kramnik again wins with White moving him up to 2.5/3 in the rapid games and 4/6 in the overall standings.

The middle of the table battle between Gelfand and Grischuk led to two draws, so the players stay together on 50%.

Carlsen and Aronian were again victorious and with 2/2 today they both gained several places in the table.

Boris GelfandISR27500.5-0.5Alexander GrischukRUS2756
Ruslan PonomariovUKR27480.5-0.5Leinier Dominguez PerezCUB2713
Vladimir KramnikRUS27901-0Vugar GashimovAZE2740
Magnus CarlsenNOR28131-0Peter SvidlerRUS2750
Vassily IvanchukUKR27480.5-0.5Sergey KarjakinRUS2725
Levon AronianARM27821-0Jan SmeetsNED2651

After two rounds, the Ukrainian pair were ahead but now Ponomariov has been caught by the big guns i.e. a resurgent Carlsen and a steady Kramnik.

So this leaves Vassily Ivanchuk alone on 4.5/6, but there are still 16 more games to play before one gets too carried away with predictions!

RankingSeedNameCountryRatingRapidplay TotalBlindfold TotalOverall Total
17Vassily IvanchukUKR274822.54.5
2=1Magnus CarlsenNOR2813224
2=2Vladimir KramnikRUS27902.51.54
2=9Ruslan PonomariovUKR2748224
5=4Alexander GrischukRUS2756123
5=6Boris GelfandISR27501.51.53
5=3Levon AronianARM2782213
8=5Peter SvidlerRUS275011.52.5
8=10Sergey KarjakinRUS272511.52.5
10=8Vugar GashimovAZE27400.51.52
10=11Leinier Dominguez PerezCUB27131.50.52
1212Jan SmeetsNED265110.51.5

Ponomariov was sharing the lead after two day's play, but two draws today saw him lose ground.

Ponomariov-Dominguez
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