Today’s 3rd round started with a bang as the opening move on the top board was made by none other than football legend Xavi Hernandez. Xavi won the World Cup with Spain in 2010 and holds a total of 28 trophies, more than any other Spanish player in history. He is also known for having been the strategic mastermind in both the Barcelona and Spain teams and it is therefore fitting to welcome him at a chess tournament, although he did try to open the game with 1.Ke3, before eventually settling for 1.e3.



After playing for football giants FC Barcelona from 1997 to 2015, Xavi joined the Qatari club "Al Sadd" this summer. When asked about his life in Qatar, the Spanish replied ‘I couldn’t be happier. I am overwhelmed with the hospitality I received since I arrived to Qatar. People are warm and it has been a great experience so far.’ In more good news, beIN Sports (one of the biggest sports channels worldwide) covered today’s round and conducted an hour-long interview with Tournament Director Mohamed Al-Modiahki, thus further strengthening the link between chess and sports.



But let’s come back to today’s chess action. After only three rounds, the leadership has been narrowed down to only two players: Anish Giri and Li Chao.



The Dutch wunderkind played a model game, exerting constant pressure on Radoslaw Wojtaszek in an endgame where Giri was only slightly better, until his opponent eventually cracked and resigned on move 60.

The board 3 encounter between Sethuraman and Li Chao didn’t even last for half as many moves, as the Chinese played a powerful game to force his opponent to resign in only 26 moves.

After the game Li Chao admitted that in case of 5.Nf3 e4, he had forgotten everything. However, after his opponent played 5.d5 he thought it was not a big problem, and by move 7 he was already playing for more than a draw.

On boards two and four the match-ups Howell-So and Yu-Swiercz respectfully both ended in rather balanced draws, but on the fifth table World Champion Magnus Carlsen treated the fans to an impressive display of his strength, as he inflicted a convincing loss on Daniil Yuffa.



However, the highlight of today’s round was doubtlessly the encounter between Mamedyarov and Lenderman. The Azeri number one showed everyone why he has the reputation of being one of the most creative and aggressive players on the tour, as he sacrificed for a beautiful mating attack which his opponent was gracious enough to let him execute on the board.

Here are the winner’s thoughts on the game.

In tomorrow’s 4th round Li Chao will have the white pieces in his clash against co-leader Anish Giri, while Magnus Carlsen is back up to board 2, where he will face Polish talent and World Junior Vice-champion Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

Report by Fiona Steil-Antoni

Live games at http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/live/ 
Photo galleries available at: http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/round-3-photo/ 
Video archive: http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/round-3-video/ 
Results and pairings: http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/round-4-pairings/ 

The 2015 Qatar Masters Open is organized by the Qatar Chess Federation from December 19-30.

The prize fund for the top 20 players of the Open is more than $100 000, with first place taking home $27000. Additional prizes based on best performance in 2300 -2600 ELO and others bring up the total prize fund to $130 000, a significant increase from last year’s tournament.

The competition will be fierce, where just the top 5 is comprised of Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Anish Giri, Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin.

Giri and Kramnik won second and third place in the 2014 Qatar Masters, respectively, and this year they will compete in a much more difficult field. Live games with analysis



The ASPIRE Zone, the largest indoor sports dome in the world, has become the official tournament venue for Qatar Masters Open 2015. The tournament will be held at the Ladies Club of ASPIRE.

This venue was used for Arab Games 2011 and its impressive 900 square meters playing area plus a dozen of additional meeting rooms and offices will help the organizers to provide participants of this prestigious Open with a comfortable play.

Official website