Every day the number one rated in the Open, Andrey Vovk, plays games that are well worth looking at. Today, in the third round, that didn’t yield him a point, however. The Canadian master Aman Hambleton, who performs surprisingly well so far, managed to scrape a half point after a sharp game.
Alexander Beliavsky, Eric Hansen, Bartlomiej Heberla and Victor Mikhalevski did continue their winning streaks and are still on one hundred percent.
Vovk - Hambleton
In this sharp position Vovk of course played:
25.Rxf5!? gxf5 26.Qxf5 Re6?!
An attractive trick was 26...Be4! 27.Qxe4 Bxc3 28.Qd3 Bxd2+ and White has too little compensation for the material. Black could have played this on the next move as well.
27.h4 Rce8?! 28.h5 Bh8 29.Nd5 Bxd5 30.Qxd5 Qc4 31.Qf3 Re2 32.g6 fxg6 33.hxg6 Rc8
Now it starts to look dangerous. More safe was 33...R2e7.
34.Qf7+?!
34.c3! followed by 35.Bh6 and only then 36.Qf7+ gave White good chances.
34...Qxf7 35.gxf7+ Kf8 36.Bh6+ Bg7 37.Bxg7+ Kxg7 38.Nd4 Re5 39.Nf5+ Kf8 40.Rg1
40...Rcc5
40...Rxc2+ 41.Kxc2 Rxf5 is also a draw: 42.Rg8+ Kxf7 43.Ra8 etcetera.
41.Nxd6
Threatening to give a winning check on the upper row, so Black has to maintain the opposition with his rook, with a draw.
41...Rg5 42.Rh1 Rh5 43.Rg1
And after a few more repetitions the peace was signed.
A number of boards down, Jorgen Henseler achieved a surprising win with a nice combination.
Henseler - Colijn
18.Nxf7!
A beautiful trick, based on the long diagonal.
18...Kxf7
18...Qxf7 19.Nxf6+ gxf6 20.Bxd6 Rxd6? 21.e5.
19.Bxd6 d3
19...Rxd6 20.Nc7 Qe7 21.e5 and White wins.
20.Qxc5 Nxd5 21.Bxb8!?
A little more convincing was 21.e5! Bb7 22.Rxd3.
21...Nb6 22.Qh5+ Kg8 23.Bh3 Qxa2 24.Be5
And in the end White converted his extra pawns: 1-0.
