Judit Polgar made Viswanathan Anand pay heavily for some middle game mistakes as she won a wildly swinging third game in the Chess Classic of Mainz on Friday night.

The Indian ace, who had pulled back after his opening game deficit to win the second game on Thursday, is once again a game down.

A second game, with Anand playing black, is scheduled for later in the day.

The NIIT brand ambassador had lost the opening game on Thursday but did well to win the second a while later.

Polgar, who plays much slower than Anand, seems to give the impression of being in time pressure but then pulls out the rabbit from the hat. Of course, Anand helped her with some errors, which the Hungarian was smart enough to capitalise on quickly.

The third game started much like the first on day one of the tournament as it went into the Sicilian Najdorf. Only the players had opposite colours. So Polgar beat Anand with both white and black once each in Sicilian Najdorf games.

Polgar is now 2-1 up with five more games to go.

Anand had an edge for the early part of the game and in the middle he was looking like running away as Polgar fell on the wrong side of the clock. But just then the Indian ace erred around the 34th move with Rook move and from there the tenacious Polgar clawed back and gradually moved into a winning position.

The moves:

Game 3: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 Qb6 7. Nb3 e6 8. g4 Nc6 9. Qe2 Qc7 10. Be3 b5 11. O-O-O Nd7 12. Kb1 Nb6 13. Qf2 Rb8 14. f4 b4 15. Ne2 e5 16. f5 a5 17. Ng3 a4 18. Nd2 a3 19. Bxb6 Rxb6 20. Nc4 Rb8 21. b3 Be7 22. Nh5 g6 23.Ng7+ Kf8 24. Ne6+ Bxe6 25. fxe6 Nd8 26. exf7 Ne6 27. Ne3 Qc3 28. Nc4 Nf4 29. Qg3 Kxf7 30. Qxc3 bxc3 31. Rg1 h5 32. g5 h4 33. Re1 Kg7 34. Re3 d5 35. exd5 Bc5 36. Rg4 Bxe3 37. Nxe3 Rhf8 38. Bc4 Rbd8 39. Rg1 Nh3 40. Rd1 Nf2 41. Re1 Ne4 42. Kc1 Nd6 43. Be2 Rf2 44. Ng4 Rf5 45. Bd1 e4 46. Ne3 Rxg5 47. Bg4 Nf5 48. h3 Nxe3 49. Rxe3 Rxg4 50. hxg4 Rh8 51. Kd1 Kf6 52. Rxe4 h3 53. Re1 Kg5 54. Rh1 Kxg4 55. Ke2 g5 56. d6 h2 57. Kf2 Kh3 white resigned.

Earlier report: Anand hits back