Debashis Das and Shardul Gagare beat Navara and Vitiugov
The Gibraltar Masters is held each year at the Caleta Hotel. What a scenic location!
Indian challenge is being led by Harikrishna, who made a slow start to this event by drawing his first two rounds to Hemant Sharma and Anita Gara. He won his third round against Nils Gustaf Renman and this might be the start of his winning streak. He is the fifth seed in the event.
Hemant Sharma was 200% happy after drawing his game against Harikrishna
Prithu Gupta is playing some great chess at the event as he drew his first two rounds against GM Le Quang Liem and GM Bonelli Itturizaga. He followed it up with a win against a 2100+ player.
I had my unit test examinations, so I didn't prepare much - Prithu Gupta
Youngster Raunak Sadhwani drew his game against Varuzhan Akobian (2647) in the first round
Nihal Sarin (2524) will be a guy to watch out for. Until now he has two draws and one win with players rated below him. He will be looking to score a few wins and play against the "big guys"!
Nigel Short couldn't break through the defences of young Praggnanandhaa. He drew the game. Pragg will be trying hard to get his second GM norm here. He is on 2.5/3.
Up against a very talented young #Indian player today, but I will do my best to thrash the little Pragga @GibraltarChess
— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) January 25, 2018
Praggnanandhaa speaks to Tania Sachdev
The top seed of the event is Levon Aronian. The Armenian began with a draw against Anita Gara in round one and then won both his games against Hemant Sharma and Sarah Hoolt.
GM Debashis Das scored one of the biggest upsets of the event, by beating GM David Navara
GM Shardul Gagare calmly refuted Nikita Vitiugov's (2732) piece sacrifice and took home the full point!
Two legends having a chat: Boris Gelfand and Levon Aronian!
Sethuraman has started off with 2.5/3
Lalith Babu held Michael Adams to a draw and now faces Boris Gelfand!
Can you guess who these shoes belong to? For those who watched the World Cup 2017 coverage by ChessBase would surely know!
Top 20 players after round three:
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | |
| 1 | 3 | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | USA | 2781 | 3,0 | 3279 |
| 2 | 9 | GM | Duda Jan-Krzysztof | POL | 2724 | 3,0 | 3267 |
| 3 | 16 | GM | Howell David W L | ENG | 2682 | 3,0 | 3246 |
| 4 | 24 | GM | Grandelius Nils | SWE | 2647 | 3,0 | 3236 |
| 5 | 30 | GM | Gledura Benjamin | HUN | 2612 | 3,0 | 3222 |
| 6 | 38 | GM | Antipov Mikhail Al. | RUS | 2588 | 3,0 | 3201 |
| 7 | 78 | IM | Batsiashvili Nino | GEO | 2504 | 3,0 | 3119 |
| 8 | 81 | GM | Debashis Das | IND | 2501 | 2,5 | 2765 |
| 9 | 82 | GM | Gagare Shardul | IND | 2494 | 2,5 | 2753 |
| 10 | 2 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | FRA | 2793 | 2,5 | 2736 |
| 11 | 11 | GM | Adams Michael | ENG | 2709 | 2,5 | 2732 |
| 12 | 12 | GM | Rapport Richard | HUN | 2700 | 2,5 | 2730 |
| 13 | 25 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | IND | 2646 | 2,5 | 2715 |
| 14 | 94 | GM | Salomon Johan | NOR | 2476 | 2,5 | 2711 |
| 15 | 14 | GM | Gelfand Boris | ISR | 2697 | 2,5 | 2708 |
| 16 | 29 | GM | Edouard Romain | FRA | 2613 | 2,5 | 2707 |
| 17 | 63 | GM | Lalith Babu M R | IND | 2542 | 2,5 | 2704 |
| 18 | 96 | IM | Saduakassova Dinara | KAZ | 2470 | 2,5 | 2700 |
| 19 | 65 | GM | Mikhalevski Victor | ISR | 2538 | 2,5 | 2693 |
| 98 | IM | Dragnev Valentin | AUT | 2466 | 2,5 | 2693 |
Tania Sachdev:
One person who is lighting up the show at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is Tania Sachdev. She is the host of many videos that are being produced every day. Everyone's favourite was, of course, the one below:
One of the most exciting videos with some very nice questions by Tania
Performances of Indian players:
| SNo | Name | Rtg | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | Pts. | Rk. | Group | |
| 5 | GM | Harikrishna P. | 2745 | IND | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2,0 | 76 | Masters |
| 25 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2646 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 2,5 | 13 | Masters |
| 31 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 2610 | IND | 1 | ½ | ½ | 2,0 | 58 | Masters |
| 37 | GM | Gopal G.N. | 2593 | IND | ½ | 1 | ½ | 2,0 | 85 | Masters |
| 42 | GM | Sandipan Chanda | 2579 | IND | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2,0 | 101 | Masters |
| 45 | GM | Narayanan S. L. | 2573 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 2,5 | 31 | Masters |
| 63 | GM | Lalith Babu M R | 2542 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 2,5 | 17 | Masters |
| 68 | GM | Swapnil S. Dhopade | 2533 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 2,5 | 29 | Masters |
| 71 | IM | Nihal Sarin | 2524 | IND | 1 | ½ | ½ | 2,0 | 93 | Masters |
| 74 | IM | Praggnanandhaa R | 2515 | IND | 1 | ½ | ½ | 2,0 | 64 | Masters |
| 81 | GM | Debashis Das | 2501 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 2,5 | 8 | Masters |
| 82 | GM | Gagare Shardul | 2494 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 2,5 | 9 | Masters |
| 102 | IM | Prasanna Raghuram Rao | 2458 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2,0 | 98 | Masters |
| 108 | GM | Venkatesh M.R. | 2445 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 2,5 | 26 | Masters |
| 114 | IM | Swayams Mishra | 2432 | IND | 1 | ½ | 1 | 2,5 | 27 | Masters |
| 119 | IM | Raja Harshit | 2427 | IND | ½ | 1 | ½ | 2,0 | 116 | Masters |
| 136 | IM | Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh | 2380 | IND | 1 | ½ | ½ | 2,0 | 78 | Masters |
| 139 | FM | Prithu Gupta | 2373 | IND | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2,0 | 45 | Masters |
| 149 | IM | Hemant Sharma (Del) | 2348 | IND | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1,5 | 121 | Masters |
| 159 | IM | Padmini Rout | 2325 | IND | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1,0 | 181 | Masters |
| 162 | FM | Sadhwani Raunak | 2321 | IND | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1,5 | 129 | Masters |
| 176 | IM | Mohota Nisha | 2269 | IND | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1,5 | 136 | Masters |
| 186 | WIM | Nandhidhaa Pv | 2238 | IND | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1,5 | 148 | Masters |
| 228 | WFM | Cholleti Sahajasri | 2083 | IND | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1,0 | 221 | Masters |
| 230 | WIM | Tejaswini Sagar | 2081 | IND | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1,5 | 132 | Masters |
| 247 | WIM | Gagare Shalmali | 2001 | IND | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | 239 | Masters |
| 254 | CM | Dev Shah | 1977 | IND | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | 241 | Masters |
| 268 | Mayank Pal | 1834 | IND | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | 250 | Masters |
Master Classes:
Nigel Short on becoming a candidate:
Maxime Vachier Lagrave shows his best game against Ding Liren:
