Australian Open - Round 3

The top of the field is starting to shrink in the 2013 Australian Open, with only 10 players on 3/3. A couple of the top seeds fell back by half a point yesterday, while George Lester continued his good run, drawing with IM George Xie, after upsetting Tristan Boyd yesterday.
The game that excited the most interest from the online spectators was the Solomon - Chen game. White looked to have a crushing attack, although both players were following previous theory, all the way up to move 24. Predictions of a quick win for Solomon (including  my own) were off the mark, as Chen had a perfectly playable position, albeit one that required accurate defence. In fact the result of the game could have been reversed on move 34 if Chen had found 34. ... Qd6+ 35.Bf4 Qe6 trapping the rook on f5. Instead he played a similar, but inferior plan, but it wasn't until a few moves later that Solomon finally  broke down his defence to pick up the point.
Full crosstables, as well as games from the first 3 rounds, are available here.


Solomon,Stephen - Chen,Pengyu [C96]
Australian Open Sydney (3), 04.01.2013