Levon Aronian of Armenia struck oil and finished off his opponent, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, in Round 3 of the Grenke Chess Classic in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Aronian now ties for the second spot with Fabiano Caruana of the United States and Germany's Arkadij Naiditsch with 2 points each, while Hou Yifan of China leads the tournament with 2.5 points.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway) lags behind with 1.5 points, followed by Vachier-Lagrave (1 point), and Georg Meier and Matthias Bluebaum of Germany, each with half a point.

Former champions include Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand of India. Round 4 is slated for Wednesday, April 19.