Sujatha Srinivasan reports.

Sujatha Srinivasan reports from the venue

The third round started with a spate of draws in the second hour but gradually the spirit to fight became prominent and quite a few upsets were registered. Peter Svidler who had a tough time from Bacrot in round two seemed to have lost some energy. He was defeated today by Peng Xiaomin. The Chinese have considerably improved in the last decade and the Women have already made it big on the world scene, now perhaps at these championships its the turn of the men.

Vishy Anand going through the tournament bulletin before his second round game.

The crowd favorite Vishy Anand drew his game quickly with black pieces against Smbat Lputian. He actually seems to save his energy for a win with white pieces. Young Macieja who defeated experienced Kresenkov from his own country in the second round tiebreak played well to hold higher rated Beliavsky to a draw. Leitao the Lautier scalper defeated Short's conqueror, Nataf. Adams seems to follow Vishy in drawing quickly with black pieces and that is exactly what he did today against Yermolinsky. In the battle between two favorites, Gelfand proved his superiority by overcoming Piket with the white pieces. The 53 years young Boris Gulko defeated Azmaiparashvili with black pieces to move into the reverse round with all odds favoring him to move into the fourth round.

Xie Jun and Galliamova

In the women's section the defending champion Xie Jun was held to a draw by the Russian Zayac. Another Chinese player Xu Yuhua held World cup runner-up Zhukova to a draw. Favorites Alisa Galliamova and Corina Peptan won their games with white pieces against Almira Skripchenko and Nana Ioseliani respectively. The reverse games are very much anticipated and more upsets are expected.

Maia Chiburdanidze and Rakhil Eidelson (who fainted during round one game two).