World Rapid: Half-Point Lead For Carlsen After Day 2 | UPDATE: Video

Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader at the FIDE World Rapid Championship in Dubai with five rounds to go. In round 10 the Norwegian defeated co-leader Fabiano Caruana of Italy in a direct confrontation and is now half a point ahead of Levon Aronian of Armenia, who defeated Hikaru Nakamura in Tuesday's final round. On Wednesday the decisive last five rounds will be played.
Magnus Carlsen bowling in Dubai (more on this below) - Photo courtesy of the Magnus Carlsen Facebook page
On what was another very hot day for most participants, but a normal one for Dubai standards, rounds 6-10 of the World Rapid Championship were played in the rook-shaped Dubai Chess & Culture Club. Luckily many of the technical problems of the first day were solved, and so the tournament was easier to follow for the chess fans at home.
Update: here's our video report, which includes interviews with the world's #1 and #2 of classical chess (and currently in the standings!) Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian:
The tournament is enjoying the luxury of having many of the world's best players among the participants, and even better: none of them is out of form. Not all of them had a good first day, but players like Carlsen, Aronian, Grischuk, Caruana, Anand, Nakamura, Karjakin and Svidler were all moving up to the top of the standings, and together with e.g. Ian Nepomniachtchi, Evgeny Tomashevsky and Yu Yangyi they will fight for the top prizes tomorrow.
Yesterday he told Chess.com that he was playing the tournament “just for fun”, and perhaps it was that mindset that helped Caruana to beat Nepomniachtchi on board one in Tuesday's starting round. He found a healthy set-up against the King's Indian Attack and slowly outplayed his opponent.

Karjakin and Carlsen played a very interesting draw that started as a Sicilian Dragon (!). It's been a while, but Carlsen played that sharp variation four years ago in classical games as well.

Sergei Movesian crushed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave using yet another 6th move against the Najdorf: the innocious-looking 6.a3!?

KingLoek was undefeated after the first day, and continued very well:

Alexander Morozevich won quickly against Judit Polgar using 2.b3 in the Sicilian:
The 7th round saw lots of draws on the top boards: Caruana-Karjakin, Anand-Movsesian, Grischuk-Morozevich, and Carlsen-Fressinet. This time the Frenchman wasn't “too weak, too slow.” :-)

Nepomniachtchi won a good game against Le Quang Liem to join Movsesian and Karjakin in second place, half a point behind Caruana.
Nakamura joined the group of players with 5.0/7 after inflicting the first loss upon Van Wely.
The 7th round lasted about 1.5 hours because of one game: Matlakov-Vakhidov, who reached a RN-R ending. Matlakov tried it for many moves (most probably more than fifty) before giving up his winning attempts, and it was all watched by the other participants on TV screens in the cafeteria.


Caruana maintained his lead in round 8 with a draw againt Movsesian, who was making a very solid impression. Nepomniachtchi and Karjakin also split the point, and the group of players behind Caruana became bigger. One of them was Nakamura, who beat Morozevich in an excellent game as Black. The American had no problems with that 2.b3 move!

Grischuk then defeated his compatriot Tomashevsky from a Bishop's Game/Vienna.
Carlsen outplayed Kryvoruchko from the black side of a 3.Bb5+ Sicilian that looked more like a Closed Ruy Lopez:

Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son managed to hold Vishy Anand to a draw, while Aronian defeated Potkin, who has the tendency to go down in pretty fashion:
Even though there was no long endgame this time, between the 8th and the 9th round there was a break of about 45 minutes anyway - because it was prayer time.
Super long breaks between the games! Possible to go walk, swim in the sea, and make some shopping!
— Sergey Karyakin (@SergeyKaryakin) June 17, 2014
Carlsen had a different way of spending the break, as he posted on Facebook:
In round 9 Caruana-Grischuk and Nakamura-Nepomniachtchi ended in draws. Carlsen caught Caruana in first place thanks to a win against Movsesian, who was very disappointed - he probably thought the ending should have been holdable, and he was probably right.

Karjakin lost his first game in round 9 (!) to Aronian. The Berlin Ending is always tricky.
In an all-Indian match, Anand defeated Harikrishna convincingly:
As in any Swiss event, the tournament leaders get paired against each other and so it was Carlsen vs Caruana in round 10! Via 1.d4 the players reached a Philidor and White was a bit better after the opening. A tactical sequence led to a passed a-pawn for Carlsen and he used more nice tactics to get it to the eighth rank:
On board 2 Nakamura “chose the wrong plan”, according to Aronian, who reached a strategically winning position very early on.
Such a tragedy to confuse lines and go 11...Bd8 not 11...Bd6...oh well. Tomorrow is a new day.
— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) June 17, 2014
And so, with five rounds to go, Carlsen is on 8.0/10 and Aronian on 7.5/10. They will play each other on top board on Wednesday, and again the round starts at 15:00 local time (Dubai = GMT+4, so 13:00 Amsterdam, 12:00 London, 07:00 New York, 04:00 Los Angeles).
World Rapid Championship 2014 | Round 10 Standings (Top 40)
Rk. | SNo | Name | Fed | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | Perf |
1 | 4 | Carlsen Magnus | NOR | 2827 | 8 | 2713 | 54,5 | 2946 |
2 | 7 | Aronian Levon | ARM | 2785 | 7,5 | 2687 | 51 | 2862 |
3 | 11 | Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | 2768 | 7 | 2754 | 55,5 | 2890 |
4 | 2 | Caruana Fabiano | ITA | 2840 | 7 | 2735 | 59,5 | 2876 |
5 | 31 | Tomashevsky Evgeny | RUS | 2693 | 7 | 2706 | 54,5 | 2838 |
6 | 3 | Grischuk Alexander | RUS | 2828 | 7 | 2700 | 55 | 2838 |
7 | 45 | Yu Yangyi | CHN | 2668 | 7 | 2687 | 52 | 2807 |
8 | 9 | Anand Viswanathan | IND | 2770 | 7 | 2684 | 53 | 2827 |
9 | 6 | Svidler Peter | RUS | 2787 | 7 | 2662 | 53 | 2804 |
10 | 8 | Karjakin Sergey | RUS | 2781 | 6,5 | 2741 | 61 | 2840 |
11 | 49 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | VIE | 2660 | 6,5 | 2731 | 54 | 2799 |
12 | 33 | Jobava Baadur | GEO | 2688 | 6,5 | 2722 | 52,5 | 2810 |
13 | 1 | Nakamura Hikaru | USA | 2841 | 6,5 | 2699 | 54,5 | 2792 |
14 | 28 | Movsesian Sergei | ARM | 2696 | 6,5 | 2696 | 55,5 | 2776 |
15 | 15 | Morozevich Alexander | RUS | 2732 | 6,5 | 2685 | 48,5 | 2775 |
16 | 13 | Radjabov Teimour | AZE | 2750 | 6,5 | 2657 | 51 | 2751 |
17 | 34 | Naiditsch Arkadij | GER | 2687 | 6,5 | 2638 | 51,5 | 2726 |
18 | 43 | Van Wely Loek | NED | 2674 | 6 | 2728 | 53 | 2768 |
19 | 36 | Fressinet Laurent | FRA | 2681 | 6 | 2722 | 55,5 | 2735 |
20 | 57 | Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo | VEN | 2652 | 6 | 2720 | 53 | 2757 |
21 | 53 | Bologan Viktor | MDA | 2656 | 6 | 2719 | 52,5 | 2744 |
22 | 68 | Yudin Sergei | RUS | 2626 | 6 | 2717 | 51,5 | 2767 |
23 | 44 | Guseinov Gadir | AZE | 2671 | 6 | 2716 | 55,5 | 2756 |
24 | 14 | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | FRA | 2749 | 6 | 2681 | 53,5 | 2747 |
25 | 18 | Le Quang Liem | VIE | 2724 | 6 | 2675 | 55 | 2734 |
26 | 17 | Harikrishna P. | IND | 2726 | 6 | 2674 | 51,5 | 2739 |
27 | 64 | Adly Ahmed | EGY | 2634 | 6 | 2673 | 48,5 | 2717 |
28 | 59 | Matlakov Maxim | RUS | 2649 | 6 | 2661 | 50,5 | 2681 |
29 | 32 | Bacrot Etienne | FRA | 2692 | 6 | 2660 | 49 | 2711 |
30 | 22 | Dreev Aleksey | RUS | 2709 | 6 | 2655 | 51 | 2720 |
31 | 5 | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | AZE | 2799 | 6 | 2652 | 47 | 2696 |
32 | 12 | Malakhov Vladimir | RUS | 2766 | 6 | 2650 | 51 | 2717 |
33 | 23 | Vallejo Pons Francisco | ESP | 2709 | 6 | 2650 | 46,5 | 2715 |
34 | 29 | Kryvoruchko Yuriy | UKR | 2694 | 6 | 2635 | 49 | 2693 |
35 | 40 | Efimenko Zahar | UKR | 2677 | 6 | 2628 | 47,5 | 2679 |
36 | 27 | Moiseenko Alexander | UKR | 2699 | 6 | 2621 | 45,5 | 2680 |
37 | 39 | Zhigalko Sergei | BLR | 2679 | 6 | 2593 | 46,5 | 2651 |
38 | 70 | Dubov Daniil | RUS | 2624 | 5,5 | 2708 | 50,5 | 2738 |
39 | 73 | Riazantsev Alexander | RUS | 2597 | 5,5 | 2701 | 55,5 | 2695 |
40 | 65 | Salgado Lopez Ivan | ESP | 2630 | 5,5 | 2694 | 51,5 | 2709 |
(Full standings here)
The World Rapid starts today at 3pm local time which is 1pm CET, 7am New York and 4am Los Angeles. The championship will be broadcast live on the tournament’s official website with online games and commentary.
Earlier reports
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Comments
jimknopf
4 years 8 months ago
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I really enjoyed round ten, when
- Carlsen made a big point against the leader Caruana to levae him behind
- Aronian showed Nakamura the limits of his tactical chess
Still a long way to go tomorrow, but I enjoyed my two favorite chess players leave the the VERY impressive "rest" behind today. ;-)
MagnusOCarlsen
4 years 8 months ago
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Me too
Roberto
4 years 8 months ago
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I'm LOVING this tournament! It's much more dynamic.
Armenian highlands
4 years 8 months ago
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Carlsen's games are not interesting. No groundbreaking novelties, no fire on the board, nothing. True chess fans will patiently await the return of the real king of chess, Vladimir Kramnik, who will delight us with his beautiful, scientific approach to the opening, as well as his impeccable endgame technique.
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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Ridiculous. And I'm a Kramnik fan.
Thomas Richter
4 years 8 months ago
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I doubt that "Armenian highlands" is a Kramnik fan - such ridiculous comments recently appeared here, probably to make Kramnik fans look stupid.
Leo
4 years 8 months ago
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You really hit the Kool Aid, didn't you ...
luke
4 years 8 months ago
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Get the hell out of here, S3..!
freakin racist comment again!
Leo
4 years 8 months ago
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Not that I would put anything past S3, but ... where is the racist comment?
Roberto
4 years 8 months ago
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Don't be ridiculous. Carlsen's games were very nice.
Hernán Ruiz
4 years 8 months ago
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Your stupid commentaries are not interesting.
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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There he is!
THERE HE IS!
The shining star, the world's best chess player, classical, rapid, blitz, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAGNUS CAAAAAAAAAAARLSEN!!!!!!!!!
jimknopf
4 years 8 months ago
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No need to freak out, we're talking of chess.
Ever heard of that game? ;-)
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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Magnus now first in the Live Rapid Rating List.
Poor Thomas.
Thomas Richter
4 years 8 months ago
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"none of them (the world's best [rapid] players is out of form" - this isn't completely true: Fifth seed and defending champion Mamedyarov has only 6/10 and has already lost three games. 10th seed (rapid specialist?) Korobov has only 4.5/10. Wang Hao (5.5/10) and Eljanov (5/10) probably also aren't happy with their events.
jimknopf
4 years 8 months ago
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In such a strong field I'm not surprised that some are facing more problems than at former occasions.
But the classical top ten players present there showed a pretty solid performance so far.
Stu Pidme
4 years 8 months ago
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Thomas is right. Leading this field after 10 rounds is not much of an achievement, since not all of the 20 top guns are in absolute best form. The field last year was much stronger.
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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The field last year was much weaker, if I remember right.
And calling it "not much of an achievement" to lead a field with most of the classical top ten plus most of the best worldwide rapid- and blitz-specialists is quite a funny statement, by the way.
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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How can Carlsen leading be an achievement of any sort if Korobov isn't in his best form? :)
Thomas Richter
4 years 8 months ago
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Don't take "Stu Pidme" seriously. Yes, the field last year was weaker, but even then Mamedyarov wouldn't have finished on top with three losses (against [players comparable to] Jobava, Efimenko and Najer). And Carlsen's result is an entirely separate story.
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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Whilst I agree that it's probably a bit of an unnecessary sweeping statement at the top of the article, I don't think you can insert the word 'Rapid' into that quote - I don't think that is the implication. I think that the statement is more in reference to people who are popularly considered to be 'the best', i.e. at the very top of the classical ratings, invited to top tournaments etc.
Just a thought.
RG13
4 years 8 months ago
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So the current leaders are the top-rated classical chess players? I guess rapid is more transitive than blitz but would be willing to be proved wrong. Too bad for Nakamura that his phenomenal bullet skills are of little value here. I suspect that Nakamura's top rapid rating is based upon an insufficient number of games and also the world champ had not made rapid a priority before.
BS
4 years 8 months ago
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Bullet skills depend as much on your mouse and computer set up as your chess. it is interesting those players who are of significantly different strength at blitz , rapid and classical . I wonder what the reasons for that are?
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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magnus is being magnus again! better than the rest of the players, so this is not surprising at all. but since this is a rapid event w/ many players, he has to keep his pace up tomorrow.
PP (NL)
4 years 8 months ago
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Nice to see Van Wely doing so well.
bhabatosh
4 years 8 months ago
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Rapid games are best way to promote chess ... it is quick , produce more decisive results and offers more action in a day than classical chess. Swiss event makes it even more interesting as it allows mix things ....Great to see Carlsen is doing great !
RG13
4 years 8 months ago
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Rapid is great but 25' + 10" is fast enough. No need for this 15' + 10" more blunderful time control.
PircAlert
4 years 8 months ago
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A top 8 or top16 knock out after 10 rounds would have been even better, and would determine a true champion.
observer
4 years 8 months ago
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Rubbish.
A knockout is much worse than a Swiss. See 'Championship Chessmetrics Analysis' by Jeff Sonas.
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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LOL picture http://dubai2014wrb.com/en/playerbio/59/
RG13
4 years 8 months ago
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He's clearly looking at things all wrong!
Walter
4 years 8 months ago
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Ouch, looks like Nakamura was lost against king Loek. Now he still has some small chances...
Hernán Ruiz
4 years 8 months ago
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Yesterday one of this anonymous guys was celbrating
the 3th place of Carlsen.It seems it was too early for this.Now he keeps his big mouth shut.
Zeveraar
4 years 8 months ago
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I don't get why people are so serious about this tournament and the player's results. For the players this is fun and a great opportunity to try out some stuff - given a few exceptions.
Might we consider approaching this in the same way?
Grandma
4 years 8 months ago
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You are right, and - Yes, we might, Zeveraar. :-)
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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Premature celebrations by fanboys? Brat simply being outplayed by Champ Anand in endgame! :)
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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Woohoo Carlsen beaten!!!
Leo
4 years 8 months ago
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Indeed, good job, Vishy - the only one to score a full point off the new rapid World Champion :)
me
4 years 8 months ago
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yes, by himself
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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With Anand back to normal it is simply no match for him to win this easily even with black against such inferior opponent!
jimknopf
4 years 8 months ago
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Yes, we all saw how Anand wasn't even able to profit from Carlsen's blunder, and "win easily" against all the "inferior opponents" to claim the rapid world championship.
Behind whom did he join scond row? Behind the "inferior oppenent"?
How could that happen to "Anand back to normal"???
Seriously, Anand played well, but Carlsen (despite giving away one game by a big blunder) just played better.
End of story. ;-)
Thomas Richter
4 years 8 months ago
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Carlsen couldn't really complain about 1.5/3 from his games against Aronian, Anand and Grischuk - 0.5/3 might have been a logical result given the course of the games, he just lost "the wrong one". Carlsen had the best result and played the slightly more successful (not necessarily "better") rapid chess - obviously Anand and Aronian also had their moments of luck. IMO overall Caruana looked like the most stable player, but he (also) came half a point short of first place.
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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You're right Thomas. In fact if Carlsen had lost more games he might have ended at the bottom of the table with the untitled players.
Septimus
4 years 8 months ago
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Anand must be a tad worried now. That Dragon against Karjakin was spectacular. What a game!
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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nakamura : 39 final standing
SUPERB !!!
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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No, that is Cheparinov on 39. Nakamura is way ahead of 39.
Thomas Richter
4 years 8 months ago
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I guess Nakamura doesn't care about the difference between 29th and 39th place - same in terms of shared prize money (1000/16 = about 60$ if I calculated correctly).
Grandaunt
4 years 8 months ago
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Caruana played very well in this format too. I wonder if he is a good blitz player (of course he is, but relative to the top players).
Nakamura should be doing better tomorrow. It would be nice if he can battle at the top as his games are usually exciting.
observer
4 years 8 months ago
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Caruana has the better tiebreaker 1 than Carlsen. I guess that means he did better in the event than Carlsen really - I mean if you look at it Thomas style.
Anonymous
4 years 8 months ago
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Except Carlsen has the best tiebraker.
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