The World Chess Grand Prix saw Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Fabiano Caruana scoring wins in Tashkent on Saturday, over Peter Svidler and Gata Kamsky respectively. The other four games ended in a draw and thus Alexander Morozevich remains in the lead.

Tashkent Grand Prix logo | Photos courtesy of FIDE

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov surprised Peter Svidler in a rather unexplored variation of the Grünfeld and scored his first victory this tournament. The Russian committed several inaccuracies and soon had to give up the exchange. 'Shak' took the sting out of the position by trading off pieces and in the ensuing ending the pawn on a6 was doomed to fall:

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Shakhriyar Mamedyarov scored his first victory of the tournament against Peter Svidler

The only other decisive game of the day was seen in Caruana-Kamsky. The baseball-cap-wearing Kamsky opted for his favorite Chebanenko/Schlechter hybrid system in the Slav, but soon got into trouble when he refrained from the liberating ...e7-e5. Instead, he placed his knight on e6, but later on didn't find a suitable plan to justify his action. White gradually improved his position on both wings and so kept his opponent under pressure continously. Once the American-Italian managed to break through on the kingside, Black's resistance was broken.

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Caruana and Kamsky before the start of their game

Rustam Kasimdzhanov comfortably drew his game with Black against Leinier Dominguez. In a topical line of the Anti-Marshall with 8.h3, the Uzbek seemed well prepared and deviated on move 15 from the game Leko-Inarkiev played earlier this year. After the queens were traded off Black initiated some pressure along the b-file and could start thinking about more. The Cuban realized in time he had to undertake some action, sacrificed a pawn and convincingly drew by eliminating the remaining pawns.

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Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko opted for a rather quiet Najdorf and soon decided to call it day by repeating the moves on move 19.

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The game between Boris Gelfand and Alexander Morozevich featured the second Grünfeld of the day. White chose the system with 5.Bg5 and 6.Bf4 followed by a temporary pawn sacrifice. The Israeli GM got some compensation because of his pair of bishops, but soon it became clear Black had nothing to worry about either. Despite being down a pawn White was never in danger in view of his firm grip on the dark squares, and thus after the queens were exchanged the players agreed to a draw.

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The longest game of the round was played between Sergey Karjakin and Wang Hao. The Chinese opted for the Rubinstein Variation of the French and spent some time picking up a pawn with his queen. In earlier games Black was punished for this provocative approach and objectively this game doesn't change the assessment of this specific line. Little by little White's position deteriorated and Wang Hao seized the initiative and eventually won a pawn. The ensuing ending with rooks and opposite-coloured bishops remained very unpleasant for White and Karjakin horribly erred with 63.Rd5?.

After this thrilling battle, perhaps Wang Hao didn't even realize his position was suddenly winning, and therefore he missed 68...Kh4!, preventing the white king from approaching the connected passed pawns from behind.

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Sergey Karjakin-Wang Hao: ''Never take on b2, even if it's correct''

World Chess Grand Prix Tashkent 2012 | Round 3 standings

Alexander Morozevich is leading with 2.5 out of 3 games