32 players came to the playing venue today to compete in the third round of the World Cup in Tbilisi.

10 minutes before the start of the games the Chief Arbiter Tomasz Delega asked GM Anton Kovalyov to observe the dress code set out in the regulations and requested that he change his shorts accordingly but the Canadian Grandmaster explained he could not do it. The Chairman of the Organizing Committtee GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili had another conversation with the player after which Anton Kovalyov left the playing hall and did not come back for the game. After the maximum default time of 15 minutes the match arbiter stopped the clock and Kovalyov`s opponent Maxim Rodshtein won by forfeit.

World champion Magnus Carlsen surprisingly lost with White pieces against Bu Xiangzhi.

According to the Chinese Grandmaster, the sacrifice on h3 was tempting and he saw that after 17.Qf3 he had a perpetual check Bh2-Bg3. After 19…f5 he felt he had good chances to win the game. Magnus Carlsen has Black pieces in the second game and needs to strike back to equalize the score.

Fransisco Vallejo Pons chose an aggressive line in Caro Kann against Wesley So today. In the post-game interview the winner of the encounter Wesley So doubted the decision of his opponent to sacrifice an exchange. He was sure that after 20…Qb2 White has not enough compensation for the material.

Levon Aronian defeated Maxim Matlakov with White pieces. Armenian Grandmaster didn’t give any chances for counterplay for his opponent by playing on both sides of the board.

12 games finished in a draw today including the games Nepomniachtchi – Jobava, Najer – Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave – Lenderman, Nakamura – Fedoseev, Onischuk – Svidler, Artemiev – Dubov, Ivanchuk – Kramnik, Giri – Sethuraman, Ding Liren – Vidit, Li Chao – Rapport, Grischuk – Navara and Wang Hao – Kuzubov.

The second game of the third round of the FIDE World Cup starts at 3 p.m. local time.