Andranik Margaryan Memorial. Tournament "A". 3rd round

Sorensen and Davtyan showed 98.5% accuracy!

If after the first two rounds the participants of the tournament with a grandmaster norm moved in two cohesive groups, then after the third round, they split into five! Leading with 2.5 points are local players Benik Agasarov and David Shahinyan, half a point behind them are Emin Ohanyan and Alexey Grebnev and only one player, Iranian Sina Movahed, has 50% of the points. Each of them is fighting for the coveted point!

The third playing day provided a variety of game clashes. There were fierce attacks, debut confrontations, subtle maneuvering and even a genuine positional masterpiece was played. Spectators were certainly not bored.

The most ambiguous game was Shahinyan - Babujian, in which the black made a fatal mistake as early as the 6th move, hopelessly weakening the king's flank and immediately fell under a mad attack. A typical knight sacrifice immediately clarified everything. The whites were not flawless either; a simple 10.fxe6+! would practically put an end to the game, but after 10.dxe5? winning had to start almost from scratch. But Levon continued to make gross mistakes and the game ended in a real rout; the grandmaster stopped the clock already on move 23.

Another productive game took place between Agasarov and Movahed and here the whites had to work hard. Honestly won pawn and a prolonged neutralization of the opponent's activity led 15-year-old Benik to a winning endgame, where his queen with a knight and a passerby pawn better utilized the freedom of maneuver provided and the final forced combination was precisely calculated by them: under the threat of checkmate, Sina admitted defeat.

The confrontation between Ohanyan and Shuvalova was filled with rich internal content. In the most interesting moment it was interrupted by a sacrifice and perpetual check.

Grebnev and Ivanov exchanged creative puzzles, but... the desire not to lose in this game was proudly stronger than the desire to win and the game inevitably ended with mass exchanges and an equal rook endgame. Alexey was lucky that Sergey did not notice an unexpected chance on move 33 after the erroneous 33.Qg4? - the black could have made the opponent suffer, but both opponents missed this development. A logical draw ensued.

Undoubtedly, the most interesting game of the round was the clash between the guest from Sweden Sorensen and the best of the local participants Davtyan. Impeccable opening, subtle middlegame. Beautiful strikes and sacrifices, mutual tension, threats and their refutations, constantly fluctuating balance and the search for a chance to play for a win from both sides. And at the end, a beautiful confrontation in the endgame, where the blacks managed to withstand, remaining without two pawns. But... the most important thing is the assessment of an unbiased computer, which, giving opponents cosmic accuracy of 98.5%, is rarely seen even in Carlsen!

The most beautiful moment of the game is a massive blow dealt by Arsen, 23...Re5!!, which was... precisely calculated and by both opponents:

Andranik Margaryan Memorial. Standings after the 3rd round. 1-2. Agasarov, Shahinyan - 2.5; 3-4. Grebnev, Ohanyan - 2; 5. Movahed - 1.5; 6-9. Ivanov, Shuvalova, Davtyan, Sorensen - 1; 10. Babujian - 0.5.