Grandmaster Michael Adams of England struck back with vengeance, crushing GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan in the third game of the finals in the 17th World chess championship in Tripoli, Libya, on Thursday.

Having lost the second game on Wednesday, Adams leveled scores with his finely crafted victory last night to level the scores at 1.5 points each in the six-game match where the winner takes home 1,00,000 US dollars while the package for the loser is US $70,000.

The rest day today will probably do a world of good for Kasimdzhanov, as it is not easy to come back strongly after the kind of loss he suffered. The Uzbek was outplayed in all departments of the game.

Adams pulled one back in Kasimdzhanov's favourite Sicilian Paulsen, an opening that had yielded the latter good results against strong opposition thus far. Playing the middle game thematically and yet with a pinch of originality, Adams got a stronghold on the queenside in the middle game and never looked back.

It was on the 26th move that Kasimdzhanov faltered for the first time in the game as he lost a pawn through a simple series of moves and also gave Adams firm control in the central files.

In the remaining part of the game, even as Kasimdzhanov tried hard, the defence was never easy as Adams rotated his pieces in masterly fashion, exerting pressure with every move and eventually knocking down two queenside pawns.

A temporary respite was made available by Adams thereafter as he gave back one of his passed pawn but the result was never in doubt after a tricky move order weakened Kasimdzhanov's kingside further. The game lasted 47 moves.

The match is now down to last three games and Kasimdzhanov will have white in two of them. Ideally the Uzbek is the favourite now but chess pundits believe that this one will be extended till the tie-break.

And, if it does go that far, Kasimdzhanov will definitely have an edge over Adams, who is yet to play a tie-breaker here.

The Uzbek ousted the top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, third seed Alexander Grishchuk of Russia and fourth seed Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in first set of tie-break games itself, which is an indication of his stronger nerves in the faster time control version.

The moves - Game 3:

Michael Adams v/s Rustam Kasimdzhanov

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 b5 6. Bd3 Qb6 7. Nf3 Qc7 8. O-O Bb7 9. Re1 Bc5 10. Qd2 Be7 11. b3 Nf6 12. Bb2 d6 13. a4 b4 14. Na2 Nc6 15. Nd4 Nxd4 16. Bxd4 a5 17. Rac1 O-O 18. c3 bxc3 19. Nxc3 Qd8 20. Nb5 e5 21. Rc7 exd4 22. Rxb7 d5 23. Qf4 Bb4 24. Rd1 dxe4 25. Bxe4 Nxe4 26. Qxe4 Qf6 27. Nc7 Rad8 28. Nd5 Qd6 29. Qxd4 Qe6 30. g3 Rd6 31. Rxb4 axb4 32. Ne7+ Qxe7 33. Qxd6 Qe2 34. Rd4 h5 35. Qxb4 Qf3 36. h4 Rc8 37. Qd2 Rc3 38. Rf4 Qc6 39. Kh2 Rxb3 40. Qd8+ Kh7 41. Qd1 Rb7 42. Qxh5+ Kg8 43. Rd4 Qf6 44. Rd2 Ra7 45. a5 g6 46. Qb5 Kh7 47. Qb6 - black resigned.