Carlsen and Aronian win again

The second has just started and it promises new excitement. We’re looking forward to Topalov-Ivanchuk but of course there’s also Kramnik-Radjabov - for the KID fans: Radja did go for 2…g6 and 3…Bg7. And Nigel Short put up another… Evans Gambit! Two videos added

Again we will keep on updating this article during the day with material. Do have one more look at yesterday’s article, with Levon Aronian and Daniël Stellwagen.

Update 15.57h

We’re more than two hours underway now; time for a quick update. What can we say about the games so far? Kramnik-Radjabov is a very interesting KID. White’s b-pawn looks dangerous, but so does Black’s activity in the center. Kramnik has almos 30 minutes more on the clock, though, so perhaps Radjabov is in trouble. (This is also the opinion of GM Sosonko in the press room.) Similar clock-situations are relevant in the Gelfand-Aronian and Anand-Mamedyarov games. The only result of importance so far is from the B-group, where Cheparinov and Movsesian played a friendly draw. And how is Short’s Evans Gambit doing? Rather well, it seems: getting one of Black’s bishops seems a good result from the opening. But, being Dutch, we can’t help hoping that L’Ami will somehow hold on. Finally, we have to wonder what happened to the old advice that the king’s safety is the most important aspect of the middle game? Apparently, Anand, Polgar and Gelfand have their own ideas about this… Let’s see if they’re proven right.

Update 17.15u

Update 18.20u
Today’s press conference has already finished and we have it on video again. Today it was Levon Aronian who told us more about his victory against Gelfand. Topalov-Ivanchuk started promising (a Benoni) but ended in a slightly dull draw, the same result as in Van Wely-Polgar, although Loek seems to have missed a win somewhere. Anand too looked better at some point but he had to be satisfied with the draw as well.

The B group has finished: Nigel’s choice of the Evans Gambit might have been a smart one - it did serve him well to beat Erwin l’Ami smoothly. Cheparinov played a quick draw today and so nobody has a 100% score anymore. But John van der Wiel does, who surprised many with his two-win start - he leads with Braun and Caruana after today.

Update 19.37u

Here’s what Radjabov had to say about his opening choice against Kramnik (questions by Macauley):

Update 14/1, 09.39:

A small addition to this round: Carlsen is already on plus two, and if he draws the rest of his game, he has reached his goal already, as he told us right after the opening cereomny. His second game looked impressive so he might be able to do even better. For hours, Leko was trying to win a queen ending, but as is often the case, the extra pawn wasn’t worth that much with all pawns on one wing. Still, Adams and his wife entered the restaurant where we were eating slightly relieved. Van Wely and his second Jan Gustafsson were having dinner there as well, and Loek said his last mistake was probably taking onf f4, and possibly he should have refrained from taking on c6.

Today’s results:

Grandmastergroup A L. van Wely - J. Polgar ½-½ V. Topalov - V. Ivanchuk ½-½ B. Gelfand - L. Aronian 0-1 P. Leko - M. Adams ½-½ M. Carlsen - P. Eljanov 1-0 V. Anand - S. Mamedyarov ½-½ V. Kramnik - T. Radjabov ½-½

Grandmastergroup B N. Short - E. L’Ami 1-0 H. Koneru - I. Nepomniachtchi ½-½ G. Sargissian - J. Smeets ½-½ I. Cheparinov - S. Movsesian ½-½ M. Krasenkow - W. Spoelman 1-0 E. Bacrot - D. Stellwagen ½-½ P. Harikrishna - Y. Hou 1-0

Grandmastergroup C I. Krush - D. Reinderman 1-0 E. Grivas - D. Ruijgrok 1-0 F. Caruana - M. van der Werf 1-0 P. Carlsson - Z. Peng ½-½ A. Braun - P. Negi 1-0 J. van der Wiel - F. Nijboer 1-0 S. Li - A. Ushenina 1-0

Complete schedule + results »

External links:

• Tournament website
• Live web commentary (Chessdom)
• Web commentary Chesspro (Russian)