Carlsen On A Roll But Caruana Keeps The Pace - Tata Steel

Magnus Carlsen is on a roll at the Tata Steel Masters. Saturday he beat Pavel Eljanov and scored his third consecutive win. The world champ still shares the lead with Fabiano Caruana who beat Ding Liren. As long as there's football, Magnus Carlsen will be doing fine. This axiom seems to be manifesting itself further. On the rest day the Norwegian could be found on the green pitch; from that moment he won three games in a row. (And on Saturday night he was in the Amsterdam Arena, watching Ajax beating Vitesse 1-0.) His future opponents might be worried by now. Last year, after two draws and a loss, Carlsen won no less than six straight games. His victim today was Pavel Eljanov, who went for something that suits his style: a Catalan. Still, Carlsen created some dynamics early on with the remarkable move 10...g5!?. If you just fell off your chair that's totally understandable. And it might look like a typical “modern” approach, so hold on to that chair before reading the next sentence: It originates from a Petrosian-Botvinnik game from 1963! Boris Spassky also played it once, in 1990, and the now retired GM Ian Rogers once faced it as White against a young Ioannis Papaioannou. Eljanov certainly played his role in what would become a great game full of sacrifices. Even a piece was given — by the Ukrainian.