What an amazing round this was! Aronian seems to have the hardest 2 rounds left, so will be very exciting

What a strange turn of events. I have to congratulate David on keeping his head cool against the tournament leader!

I'm happy for Navara; pretty much a flawless games today! Nice to see it come together for him finally. Adds excitement to the final rounds, too.

Cracking game by Carlsen!! Nice to see Navara get a win too :)

Wow, this tourney proves that anything can happen lol Houdini was saying that Topalov was winning at some point? Not sure if its actually winning because it looked extremely dangerous!

And despite actually being rather a blunder than a sacrifice, I was very happy to see Magnus in his element in the type of resulting unbalanced position, which I think he would play better than most others anytime.

Why not move his opening repertoire a bit more into such a direction, which at least makes such kinds of positions possible, instead of concentrating on classical, more balanced positions as basis for slowly outmanoevering opponents. Running higher risks right from the opening (though surely not as high as today after ...Nxb2) should at least become one of his more often used options than it has lately been the case IMHO.

And Giri gets "coffeehoused" fourth time in a row. I guess what goes around comes around!

Come on you know nothing of Calsen's style. Carlsen , as an intuitive player can play many styles according to whom he is playing against. However , against Topalov he can pull such tricks out because Topalov is a strictly calculating player so he can lose the thread not being able to calculate everything in such a wild position while Carlsen can play according to his intuition . Although I believe today he just blundered or at list riksed more than his position allowed him...intentionally or not only he knows.

There must be something wrong with Topalov. This is the second time he gave up his Queen where he is not forced to do so!!!

How did Carlsen win? His position was almost dead lost when I left.

No news that Kramnik was in Wijk today? Kramnik and Aronian will play a match in April. 6 classical games. Kramnik arrived to sign a contract.

As I understand it, Topalov more or less self-destructed two times around; first by needlessly giving the Q where he could have just defended and maintained his material plus, and then by mishandling the resulting Q+4p vs RBB+p endgame, which must surely have been incredibly difficult for White to win against correct play. To be fair, though, "correct play" in that position can't be easy to find for either player.

Why nobody's saying "Caruana played a masterpiece"???

I want to know S3 point of view about the quality of the games.

So much for the so called "draw dead" of chess.

this is such a weird tournament...

awesome ! :P

Well great games today, most impressed with Magnus who played a game that seemed outside his comfort zone and got the win against the former 2800 player. Sad to see Aronian faulter, but equally glad young Navara goes home with a win against the leader that will take the sting off his otherwise dismal performance. Caruana at 19yo is threatening to enter the elite top ten zone, which in all honesty I had pegged Giri to pass him by before it happened oops maybe not.

Wijk 2012 has been a show even if last years winner and break out Nakamura has been on cruise control. Radjabov is letting us know he belongs at the top too and Ivanchuk is predictably Vasilating which now lets us know how his name translates into English, I vasilate so much I vanto chuck sorry ;0], he always keeps it interesting really!

MUST WATCH!

Ivan Sokolov interviews Veselin Topalov:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOR5CX-gF54

Caruana looks like the real deal.

After this round, the tournament is wide open again. Damn exciting stuff.

In a sense, Carlsen gave a handicap (material disadvantage) to a former world champion and then first equalized before going on to win; this type of handicaps happen in blitz games between the players who have a gap of a couple of hundred rating points in online 'play chess' websites. Then this is so sad, given how much of a difference there is between Carlsen and the rest of the chess world at the moment.

I also liked the fact that Karjakin (who drew only one game so far) beat Van Wely who had drawn all his games until today; that is, the one eager to win always have a better chance to leave the table happy :-)) Maybe Karjakin is trolling the chess players who are content with dull draws! I can imagine him saying, "I had better die if I were to draw a game" :-)

What an astonishing round's play - another four black victories with six decisive results from sevens games. Incredible! A lovely and precisely played victory (from what I can tell) for Navara that re-opens the betting and the crazy, wild Carlsen-Topalov with a fantastic display of the fighting power of the queen overcoming a rook plus bishop PAIR (!?). Chess is THE most exciting sport, isn't it? :)

Chessvibes does not need your kind

carlsen just bluffed topalov. topalov would have been extremely worried that carlsen has seen some thing he has not . this would not have worked against anand kramnik..

To the ones that say that Carlsen can't rely on his intuition at any position....well fortunately for him you are totally wrong. The only positions that can confuse an intuitive player (although he can make other mistakes too but those can be atributed to other factors )are wide open ones with unstable center.And I am pretty sure if Anand or Kramnik or even Carlsen himself was on the defence at least he would never give up his queen .

Giri can't stop losing :P

So Carlsen said it was just a "lucky oversight"...he blundered but he still had play , he went all in as he should under the circumstances and managed to turn the tables with help from Topalov, who despite having a won position, he also had the type of position he by no means wants to play against an intuitive player.
That sums it up I guess.

So there will be a Kramnik VS Aronian Match... sounds interesting, but really... we all know there is only one match we are all looking forward to ;-)

Carlsen -Topalov is not only the game of the round, but also the game of tournament! Only such display of boundless courage together with relentless will-power by White makes me think Carlsen stays in contention to emerge a winner. The style and execution evoke sweet memories of Tal' and Bobbie's name surface as well...
The game erasing all doubts Norwegian is 2800 grade player. On 21...g5 I guess 22.Rd6! B:R 23.N:h6+ Kf8 24.B:g5 attacking was yet another amazing line, dropping the rook, but chasing down enemie's king as in the game. All in all, this attacking masterpiece, featuring 21.Bh4!!, 22.B:f6, 25.B:f7 (25.N:f7 was possible as well 25...Bd5 26.Bc2+ Kg8 (26...e4 27.Ng5+ Kg8 28.B:N Q:N 29.Qf5) 27.Nh6+ Kg8 27.Nf7+ and Black cannot capture this daredevil knight) and 27.f4! stands way above the other texts.

With all the respect Sarunas, Carlsen himself said he blundered not sacrificed. Honestly enough in contrast to Tarasch's well known aphorism "If I win I say I sacrificed , if not I say I blundered".

And it is Bobby not Bobbie, Bobbie is girly :P