The 3rd round of the Candidates Tournament 2016 followed the trend set by the previous rounds – three games resulted in draws while one game ended decisively. This time, it was Aronian who got off the mark as he accounted for Bulgarian Veselin Topalov. The latter has had a disappointing start to the event with two losses in the three rounds played so far.
The Topalov-Aronian battle took off with the English opening. On move 12, Topalov offered an interesting pawn sacrifice, which was accepted by his Armenian opponent. However, Topalov’s obvious-looking 17th move turned out to be a big mistake, helping Aronian grab another pawn. This left Topalov two pawns down with nothing to show for it. Indeed, Aronian had no troubles converting his material advantage into a full point.
Meanwhile, Viswanathan Anand was unable to make the most out of a promising position against Fabiano Caruana. The game was agreed drawn on move 40.
Round 3 Results:
| Nakamura | ½-½ | Svidler |
| Giri | ½-½ | Karjakin |
| Topalov | 0-1 | Aronian |
| Anand | ½-½ | Caruana |