It's too bad the standings are not given. Even if they are not very relevant after two rounds, I believe they give the reader, a global overview of the event.

Just realized they were there, sorry.

Actually the final result of Ivanchuk v Nepo game created a little bit of confusion; officially it was 0-1 first and some commentators in chessbomb even dared to say that Nepo couldn't handle the pressure in the ending :-) However, it was so obvious in the prefect video broadcast of the game that it was actually Ivanchuk who first reached his hand to Nepo to agree for a draw.

Since Magnus first topped the rating list in January 2010,
-he has been #1 for 9 out 12 lists.
-his highest rating is 2026 (three times).
-His biggest lead over #2 is 23 points

After round 2 he is live rated at 2030, with a 20 point lead over Anand and Aronian. MC is looking good to break two personal records on the next list and he is closing in on Kasparov´s Legendary 2851 record...

Hi Peter,

Given the (minor) commotion at the beginning of the first round, I suggest having a contest on chessvibes for who can come up with the funniest caption for the picture of Ivanchuk and Svidler (where Ivanchuk is raising his arm) as seen on

http://www.whychess.org/node/3004

It should be great fun!

The comment "and the b-pawn promotes" at the end of the Carlsen-Gelfand game is not very precise, it's more like "and black loses the rook or is mated"...

"Carlsen increased the pressure until Gelfand made mistakes" is a bit over the top as it looks to me that it was black who had the initiative. Carlsen was able to work out the complications faster (and had more time after the opening) and in the end Gelfand got into time trouble resulting in suboptimal moves and the eventual blunder.

The post game analysis video shows also the fallacy of the myth of Carlsen playing suboptimal moves on purpose with the aim of increasing his practical chances. When he played d5 and Bc3 f.e., he didn't really see the alternatives/didn't evaluate them properly, like a normal human.
Anyway, it was a great game and saved the day as most of the other games were pretty boring.

Magnus as usual is a beast. Im surprised Gelfand did not go for the solid e6, Be7 he used against Nakamura.

If Carlsen goes on like this he should never ever dare to get on Swedish turf, he'd end up sharing a cell with other "rapists". Well done!

Caption, Ivanchuk:

'First Svidler acts like he speaks tucking English better than all of us, then Magnus with his tucking OJ, and I am reduced to memorizing Russian Poetry, in the bathroom so as not to be forced to read The Games of Topalov, Naka wants to be Smallville, so the tuck am I? Are you kidding me?'

"and his repertoire seems rocky solid."

Somehow, rocky solid doesn't seem correct. Better would be "rock solid".

PETER: Tal Memorial use the football score system. Maybe you should add another column in your standings table?

PS: Your game diagrams have great functionality! I like that it shows also the alternative moves in the text.

PS PS: Will you add smartphone functionality to chessvibes.com for easier read when on the move?

Kasparov's 2851, shaking. Once Anand and Kramnik out, playing against computers will be the only support for Magnus to improve.

Thanks for the quick reports, Chessvibes! You are faster off the mark than some competitors!

Carlsen being strategically destroyed by Kramnik! I think Carlsen's rating might overestimnated.

The thing that surprises me most after following a great game between two great players at their most entertaining like Kramnik-Carlsen is that there are so many people that only post about it to say that both players are useless as soon as they don't play the first line of the engines (that often turns out to be worse than the move they played). And it's all about Carlsen being overrated in spite of leading the tournament, with a very tough draw especially in the first rounds (and after having won his three latest tournaments!), or about Kramnik being mindbendingly weak, as someone put it at Chessbomb. Fascinating.