Levon Aronian maintained his full point lead at the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. On a "Black Wednesday" for the A group, the Armenian grandmaster won an excellent game with Black against Anish Giri. Vassily Ivanchuk, who beat David Navara, is now in sole second place, a point behind Aronian.

In 2007 he won shared with Teimour Radjabov, and in 2008 together with Magnus Carlsen. Levon Aronian has excellent chances to finish first in Wijk aan Zee for the third time after winning his black game against Anish Giri on Wednesday. With the form he's in, the Armenian grandmaster might as well try to clinch his first sole victory in the Dutch coastal town.

The game he played in the 10th round was one by a great champion, one that Tigran Petrosian would have been proud of. We mention the 9th World Champion, also from Armenia, because of the positional exchange sacrifice in the game, which was analyzed by Aronian's second Arman Pashikian during the Tal Memorial in Moscow last year. According to Aronian, whose explanation of the game can be found here, computers don't understand that Black is at least equal in the resulting middlegame. A few inaccuracies by Giri quickly led to a hopeless position for White.

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The other big favorite for tournament victory, Magnus Carlsen, is now 1.5 points behind after a quick draw with Hikaru Nakamura. Vassily Ivanchuk is in sole second place thanks to a win against David Navara, which earned the Ukrainian the 500-euro Piet Zwart Prize.

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Teimour Radjabov shares third place with Carlsen after splitting the point with Loek van Wely. The Dutchman accepted a draw offer in a winning position!

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It's important to realize that it's really not easy to see that Black is winning in the final position, because Houdini's evaluation of -5.80 is based on a number of different tactics. Besides, Van Wely didn't have much time on the clock:

He offered me a draw. I had like 50 seconds left for my last move. I was a bit suspicious when he offered me a draw; I had to make a decision. His offered seemed very reasonable to me.

"KingLoek" drew all of his games so far. However, a few years ago he actually drew 11 games in Wijk aan Zee, so he said:

I still have some work to do to break my record!

But this was not all; the A group's 10th round actually saw two more decisive games and here too the point went to Black. Fabiano Caruana is playing a fine tournament and on Wednesday he beat Veselin Topalov.

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Gata Kamsky managed to beat Sergey Karjakin with Black. According to the American grandmaster, Karjakin's win over Carlsen in the previous round played a role.

I think it contributed to why he tried to win so hard. Sometimes it backfires so I was lucky I guess.

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In Grandmaster Group B, Alexander Motylev won the daily prize of 250 euros for his

brilliant technical victory with white

(Ivan Sokolov) against Sipke Ernst.

Ernst was gradually pushed off the board.

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Pentala Harikrishna is playing very strongly this year in Wijk aan Zee. In the 10th round he got some help from his opponent to win his sixth game:

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Pentala Harikrishna is in top form this year

The C group saw a big surprise as Dutch tailender Pieter Hopman beat co-leader Hans Tikkanen in a fine game that earned him the 100-euro day prize.

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Maxim Turov drew his game and is sole leader again. In the game between Tania Sachdev and Lisa Schut, Black blundered in a textbook endgame.

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Lisa Schut (l.) already secured a WGM norm, but lost a drawn endgame against Tania Sachdev

Thursday is a rest day for Grandmaster Groups A, B and C as well as for all amateurs.

Games group A, round 10

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Round 10 standings

Games group B, round 10

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Round 10 standings

Games group C, round 10

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Round 10 standings