Aronian and Ivanchuk win
17 February 2008 5:35 AM | Last modified: 12:13
Morelia/Linares is just two rounds ahead, but so much has happened already. Two decisive games today: Aronian defeated Anand with Black in a Marshall and Ivanchuk beat Leko in a rare line of the Ruy Lopez. Topalov and Radjabov seemed to be blundering a pawn one after another, and then drew their Berlin Wall, just Shirov-Carlsen in a Kan Sicilian.
Viswanatan Anand - Levon Aronian 0-1
Vassily Ivanchuk - Peter Leko 1-0
Teimour Radjabov - Veselin Topalov - ½-½
Alexei Shirov - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
The game of the day was Anand-Aronian, in which the Armian got a very strong attack after sacrificing a second pawn in the Marshall. It looked like Anand blundered terribly on move 30, as can be read everywhere, but in reality his position was already hopeless. Here are the games with comments again:
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El visor integrado está muy bien.
I think the favourites now are Topalov and Anand.
The favorites before the match were Topalov and Anand. Today, Anand lost quite badly playing White. Curious… Why do you now say he is the favorite?
He has 1,5 points now, Topalov has 2 points. After the second round Anand seemed to be doing worse, than he actually has. He is a favourite again.
My Hungarian friend (i.e. Lajos), Anand himself picked Aronian as the pre-tournament favorite. Alas, Aronian is now among the leaders. Keep in mind, he (Levon) has played 3 out of his four games with Black (and both of his wins are with Black!). A lot of excited Anand fans where predicting that Vishy would win the Corus, but you already know what happened.
Anand is still one of the strongest players on Earth. At this point Anand, Aronian and Topalov probably have equal (25% each) chance to win the tournament. The remaining five players have about 5% chance each.
P.S. Lajos, I assume you are of Hungarian origin Are you also cheering for Leko or just for Anand?