Carlsen won the opening game of his third-round match against Aryan Tari of Norway, producing a winning pawn endgame to get the better of his opponent.

There were 22 draws across the 32 games in the open draw at the Baku Marriott Hotel Boulevard, with Cuban-born Leinier Domínguez Perez, a Grandmaster with a current ranking in the FIDE ratings list of 16, among the only other top-rated player in the open draw to win.

Domínguez Perez took advantage of an error by his opponent Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan to take victory.

The biggest surprise today in the open draw was a defeat for Russian Daniil Dubov, competing as a neutral, with the Grandmaster losing to Italian Daniele Vocaturo, the country’s top player.

After an error by Dubov allowed his black king to escape check, it enabled Vocaturo to claim a rook and force his opponent to concede.

Russian Peter Svidler, competing as a neutral and as a wildcard also sprung a surprise, overcoming Jordan van Foreest of the Netherlands, the world ranked number 40, after an attack on the kingside of the board.

In the women’s draw, nine of the 16 third-round contests to begin today ended in draws.

Among the winners were 2015 women’s world chess champion Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine who overcame India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu.

The runner-up in the 2020 women’s world chess championship match Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia, competing as a neutral, also won, overcoming Deshmukh Divya of India after she overlooked a combination in the middle game allowing Goryachkina to go on and complete victory.

The second games of all the third-round matches are scheduled for tomorrow, with any matches that are still level at that point then going to tiebreaks on Monday (August 7).