Andrey Smorodsky continued his torrid pace by checkmating Bernhard Gregory in only 24 moves to win his third game in succession and assume sole first place with a perfect 3-0 score after three rounds of the All-Russian Masters' tournament at St. Petersburg. Trailing Smorodsky in joint 2nd-3rd place with 2 1/2 points are Grigory Levenfish, victor over Sergey Lebedev, and Alexander Evensohn, who bested former tourney leader Peter Evtifeev. Six competitors stand a further half-step behind with two points each, among them Evtifeev, Alexander Alekhine, Semyon Alapin, and Efim Bogoljubow. The full list of the day's results is as follows:
Smorodsky 1-0 Gregory
Levenfish 1-0 Lebedev
Evtifeev 0-1 Evensohn
Flamberg 0-1 Alekhine
Salwe 0-1 Bogoljubow
Niemzowitsch 1-0 v. Freymann
Eljaschoff ½-½ Lowtzky
Levitsky 1-0 Znosko-Borovsky
Taubenhaus ½-½ Alapin
Standings after 3 rounds: Smorodsky 3; G. Levenfish, A. Evensohn 2 1/2; Lowtzky, Levitsky, Bogoljubow, Alapin, Alekhine, Evtifeev 2; Niemzowitsch, A. Flamberg 1 1/2; Znosko-Borovsky, Salwe, Taubenhaus 1; Eljaschoff, Gregory 1/2; v. Freymann, Lebedev 0.
Five games from the third round have reached our hands. We begin with the latest victory by the tourney leader, who soundly defeated the unusual 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nge7 defense chosen by Gregory, sacrificing a Rook at his 19th turn and delivering checkmate five moves later.
Alekhine, on the Black side of a Ruy Lopez, displayed his customary enterprising style in defeating Flamberg.
Bogoljubow, another imaginative young Master, sacrificed a piece for two pawns en route to developing an irresistible King-side attack vs. Salwe.
Niemzowitsch, whose play in the first two rounds seemed rather uncertain, scored a powerful victory as first player in a French Defense vs. von Freymann.
The veterans Taubenhaus and Alapin played to a draw in a long and hard-fought French Defense; the latter seems to have missed a winning blow with 58...Rc2+! in place of 58...Ke7.
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