Levon Aronian is the sole leader after two rounds at the 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. On Sunday the Armenian grandmaster defeated Hikaru Nakamura to get to a 2/2 score. In the only other decisive game of the A group's second round, former winner Sergey Karjakin lost his second game in a row, to Fabiano Caruna.

Levon Aronian beats Hikaru Nakamura in round 2

The view from the Hotel Hoge Duin ('high dune'), with Tata Steel's blast furnaces ('hoogovens')

Levon Aronian seems to be more ambitious than ever, and determined to start the new year with a very good result. In his game against the winner of last year, Hikaru Nakamura, the Armenian grandmaster got a clear advantage with White in a Dutch Defence, where he had to be satisfied with a quick draw last year. Then Aronian sacrificed his queen for bishop, rook and pawn and although objectively speaking Black should have been OK, it proved too difficult for the American over the board.

Aronian:

The position was very complicated. Lots of unclear things were happening! I can't really say that at any moment that I felt that I'm better, it was very sharp. Only when he captured on c5 and took e6 I already feel I have a clear advantage. White has a clear plan while Black is just suffering with his pieces.

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Levon Aronian leads with 2/2

Fabiano Caruana underlined the progress he's made, and already showed in Reggio Emilia, with an excellent victory over Sergey Karjakin, the sole winner in Wijk aan Zee two years ago. Seeing his opponent build up huge pressure against his king, the Ukrainian-born Moscovite had to give an exchange and defended vigorously, but to no avail.

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Caruana, who won the Piet Zwart prize made possible by the municipalities of Velsen and Beverwijk: 

Yes, a very nice result. Probably I could have played the technical phase better but I think I never let go of the win.

The other five games ended in draws. Anish Giri seemed to be doing very well again in his game against Teimour Radjabov. The Dutch hope grabbed a pawn, and another one, and at one point

felt that it was going to be some nice, easy win. Then I calculated a bit deeper and I got worried.

Vassily Ivanchuk got a tiny edge against Magnus Carlsen and tried to increase it, but the Norwegian avoided any real trouble. Veselin Topalov also had a small advantage at first, against Loek van Wely, but in the final part of the game it was the Bulgarian who had to be careful.

In the B group we also have a sole leader: Pentala Harikrishna of India. Kateryna Lahno made a big mistake just after the time control:

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Dutch legend Jan Timman lost against Sergey Tiviakov, who was awarded the Piet Zwart prize for his use of the bishop pair:

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In the C group, Maxim Turov is the only one with 2/2 because Matthew Sadler couldn't beat Tania Sachdev, who was in fact better for most of the game. The longest game of the day took its toll: the ending between Hans Tikkanen and Daan Brandenburg flickered between equal, good for Black, equal, suddenly lost for White, and eventually was drawn!

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Daily video by the organizers

Games group A, round 2

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Round 2 standings

Games group B, round 2

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Round 2 standings

Games group C, round 2

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Round 2 standings