CHESSDOM: AEROFLOT R3 WESLEY SO

Grigoriants - Wesley So

Round 3
Aeroflot 2009
Moscow

Welcome to the day 4 online coverage of Aeroflot open on Chessdom.com!

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 Sicilian again, Wesley So's favorite

3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 Pelikan-Sveshnikov variation

6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Be7 following the game with IM Ponkratov

10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c3 Here Ponkratov played c4, while Grigoriants goes for e3, right as proposed in our previous live commentary

11... O-O This gives the option for castling, followed by bishop development for black, while white will maneuver with the knights (Na3-c2-e3) and play a4 at some point

12.Nc2 Bg5 13.a4 bxa4 14.Rxa4 a5 15.Bc4 stabilizing the center and creating future post for discovered attacks.

15... Rb8 16.b3 Kh8 Escaping the threat mentioned.

17.Nce3 g6 18.h4 Aggressive approach by Grigoriants, who will play without castling. He sacrifices a pawn for an open h file

18... Bxh4 And Wesley So does not decline the offer

19.g3 Bg5 20.f4 exf4 21.gxf4 Bh4 22.Kd2 Ne7 The knight on c6 was very inactive and Wesley So is looking to exchange it with the strong center white one.

23.Rh2 Grigoriants follows the plan to pile up material on the h file. The position for black is not pleasant, but with precise play the game is about equal.

23... Nxd5 24.Nxd5 The game Topalov - Kamsky starts in a few minutes, let's see what the two players have prepared in the opening

24... f5 25. Kc2 deserves attention giving more space to the queen, although it gives time to the black bishop to retreat to f6, so an immediate 25. Qh1 is good. This will force g5 followed by fxg5

25.Qh1 g5 Meanwhile, the game Topalov - Kamsky is going for wild complications!

26.Kc2 maintaining the pressure on the bishop and getting the king away from check. Now Rb7 is a logical move from Wesley So.

26... Rb7 27.Ba6 Rg7 or doubling the rooks on the f file is ok for black. Mamedyarov - Tomashevsky and Safarli - Landa are draws.

27... Rbf7 28.Bxc8 Qxc8 29.fxg5 Bxg5 is forced here, Bg3 loses material

29... Bxg5 30.Rxa5 Qe6 31.exf5 Qxf5+ 32.Kb2 Qg6 33.Qg1 Qg7 And a draw was agreed. A good game by both players, where white looked for effective play on the h file, but black found good defence and the draw is the most logical outcome. Thank you for following with Chessdom.com, we continue with the coverage of Linares and the match Kamsky - Topalov. *