1. d2d4 The third round saw four draws but some interesting games. Ding Liren showed more good preparation with White and clearly looks like he came ready with a lot of ideas, but his actual gameplay has been lackluster.  The most interesting game of the day saw Firouzja play his first game with the white pieces. He managed to put Hikaru under a lot of pressure, but ultimately was unable to win against an extremely good defense. 1... g8f6  2. c2c4  2... e7e6  3. b1c3  3... f8b4  4. d1c2  4... e8g8  5. a2a3  5... b4c3  6. c2c3  6... d7d5  7. c1g5 All of this is very topical. Now, in the past, Hikaru has preferred h6, which he has clearly analyzed very well. 7... d5c4  8. c3c4  8... b7b6  9. a1d1  9... c8a6  10. c4a4  10... h7h6  11. g5h4  11... d8e7  12. g1f3  12... f8d8 We are still following a heavy mainline of theory. Hikaru has had this position some 5 times in the past, though generally from a different move order. 13. a4c2 But now this is rare. In the upcoming moves, Hikaru really spent a lot of time, and I was a bit worried. The position is certainly not bad yet, but it is very sharp, and Firouzja had clearly come well-prepared. 13... c7c5  14. e2e4  14... a6f1  15. h1f1  15... g7g5  16. f3g5  16... h6g5  17. h4g5  17... b8c6  18. c2c1 Firouzja was still blitzing to here. According to the machine, everything holds for Black. But this is very deceptive and in human terms, it looks quite challenging to play. 18... d8d4  19. d1d4  19... c6d4 