Alexander Morozevich With A Glaring Start At The Mikhail Tal Memorial

18th-31st August 2008 at GUM Exhibition Hall, Moscow

Three rounds of the 2008 Mikhail Tal Memorial have been played and Russian champion Alexander Morozevich emerged as sole leader, half a point ahead of Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk. Moro went of to a flying start by beating both of his compatriots - Biel winner Evgeny Alekseev and former World champion Vladimir Kramnik.

Another decisive result in the round three was Leko's win against Alexei Shirov, who finished second at the last year tournament, but is now knocked at the bottom of the crosstable without points. Just like the legendary champion Tal, Shirov is hailing from Riga, Latvia, and is fostering similar attacking attitude. Today he sacrificed an exchange from the Black side of Naidorf Sicilian, but Leko was able to trade off all the pieces and leave Black with weak dark-squared Bishop.

Round 3 results:

Leko - Shirov 1-0
Morozevich - Kramnik 1-0
Ponomariov - Mamedyarov draw
Ivanchuk - Alekseev draw
Kamsky - Gelfand draw

Round 3 standings:

1. Alexander Morozevich - 2.5
2-3. Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Leko - 2.0
4-8. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Boris Gelfand, Ruslan Ponomariov, Vladimir Kramnik and Gata Kamsky - 1.5
9. Evgeny Alekseev - 1.0
10. Alexei Shirov - 0.0

Round 4 pairings:

Shirov - Gelfand
Alekseev - Kamsky
Mamedyarov - Ivanchuk
Kramnik - Ponomariov
Leko - Morozevich