Liquidating to a winning pawn ending, Vassily Ivanchuk beat Fabiano Caruana after 83 moves in round 3 of the 54th Torneo di Capodanno in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Both Vitiugov-Giri and Morozevich-Nakamura ended in draws.

Ivanchuk wins in the third round | All photos © Circolo Scacchistico Ippogrifo

Amazing persistence and a crazy timetrouble phase around the second time control were the ingredients for Vassily Ivanchuk's winning recipe in the third round. Perhaps caught by surprise, Caruana didn't play one of the most critical lines against Ivanchuk's Sveshnikov - in fact the Italian reached a known position, but being a tempo down. Caruana managed to keep the position balanced for a long time, until he allowed his opponent to liquidate to a winning pawn ending.

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Vassily Ivanchuk, here watching a game from the women's tournament that's held alongside the main event

Vitiugov and Giri played a topical line in the Grünfeld that was recently discussed in ChessVibes Openings. Probably both players followed their preparation until around move 20 and they soon reached an equal ending.

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Giri draws with the Grünfeld against Vitiugov

The encounter between Morozevich and Nakamura was slightly disappointing, well, for the chess fans at least. It's getting harder and harder to achieve anything with White against the QGD at top level!

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No problems for Nakamura with Black in round 3 against Morozevich