Tapani Sammalvuo
tapani@sammalvuo.fi

The third round saw some excellent chess and tough fights on the top boards. Whereas after the second round whole twenty-two players had won both of their games, now only six players continue to have a perfect score.

Top-rated GM Sergei Fedorchuk slowly suffocated IM Toivo Keinänen in a quiet French Tarrasch.

On the second board, IM Mikael Agopov got a revenge for his recent Finnish League loss to GM Bartłomiej Heberla in a Ruy Lopez that started as a slow manoeuvring game but sharpened towards the end.

GM Lucas van Foreest (the younger brother of the top-GM Jorden van Foreest) convincingly exploited Black’s weaknesses IM Vilka Sipilä created in a non-theoretical Maróczy Bind.

FM Kalle Niemi got into some trouble early on against GM Robby Kevlishvili’s ”Dragadorf”.

GM Gábor Nagy stoved off FM Timo Pääkkönen’s attack and converted his extra pawn into a win in a Panno King’s Indian.

IM Mika Karttunen grabbed all the space he could against Samu Ristoja’s Nimzo-Indian and this proved enough to win the game.