R2: Magnus beats Loek twice

Today KingLoek experienced how strong Carlsen has become in such a short time: 2-0 for Magnus. Anand, Aronian, Ivanchuk and Kramnik won their minimatches 1½-½.

Magnus’ 23…Nxc3+ and 24…e4 was quite impressive for a blindfold game and in the rapid it was an even more one-sided event. Mamedyarov followed Magnus’ example from Linares by employing the Alekhine against Anand, who didn’t achieve much against Black’s early 7…Qc7, but Vishy did completely crush Shakh after his equally experimental 2.b3 Sicilian. From a Caro-Kann, Kramnik-Leko became a typical French IQP position known from many Karpov-Korchtnoi games. Leko’s cunning 20…Bh2+ solved all Black’s problems at once. In their rapid game, Kramnik bluffed a bit, as he said after the game, and it worked. Aronian’s 19…b5 in his blindfold game against Karjakin was a nice one, and his victory in their rapid encounter was fully deserved as the Armenian had needed quite a lot of imagination. Ivanchuk-Gelfand was a very interesting and high-level blindfold game and their rapid encounter should have ended in a draw as well, but Ivanchuk’s will to win decided. At first he seemed to be making some progress, but suddenly it appeared lost, until he found 61…Bxg3!, after which Gelfand went astray. Finally Morozevich and Topalov. They’re not the closest friends you can think of (and don’t shake hands) and perhaps that was what made their minimatch so great. After two excellent victories, Moro blindfold and Topalov rapid, the two bantams drew their match.

Blindfold games:		Rapid games:

Links:

• Tournament website
• All info, results, standings
• Games in PGN