Dmitry Jakovenko is the only player to win in the first two rounds of the Karpov Tournament. In a game between first-round winners, the 29-year-old Russian grandmaster beat Nigel Short on Saturday. Ruslan Ponomariov is half a point behind Jakovenko thanks to an endgame victory against Radek Wojtaszek. Sergei Rublevsky beat Lazaro Bruzon and Motylev won against Wang Yue.

You might remember last year's 12th edition of the Karpov tournament, but if you don't, that's understandable. It was an extremely quiet, not to say somnolent tournament with only 11/45 decisive games. This year's edition will surely beat that as after two rounds there have been seven decisive games and only three draws! After today's round, in which winners became losers and vice versa, Jakovenko leads with 2/2, followed by Ponomariov with 1.5.

Thanks to lot number one Nigel Short started with two whites, and in both games he played 1.c4, like his compatriot Howard Staunton liked to do in his time. After a few moves the position was a kind of Anti-Meran but with White's pawn still on d2 instead of d4. This made Jakovenko decide to create a classical center with ...e6-e5, even if it cost him the bishop pair. Short then pushed his pawns on the kingside and moved his king there as well, but Jakovenko showed that this plan was too risky.

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In a Slow Slav Wang Yue played a few strange moves, including Ke1-d2-c2, and was punished for it by Motylev.

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Rublevsky, who coached the gold winning Russian women's team at the Istanbul Olympiad, played a nice ending that resulted from a Scotch middlegame.

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Like Ivanchuk earlier this week, Ponomariov played the out-of-fashion 7...Na6 against Wojtaszek's Russian System in the Grünfeld. It used to be Kasparov's choice, and it might have been part of the preparation of the Ukrainian team for the Olympiad. Ponomariov got a good position out of the opening, eventually reached a B vs N ending and managed to win it on move 67.

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Bologan went for the drawish 5.Re1 line against Onischuk's Berlin Wall and a draw it was.

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Karpov Tournament (Poikovsky) 2012 | Schedule & results

Karpov Tournament (Poikovsky) 2012 | Round 2 standings