2017 London Chess Classic, Round 2: The Fight for Last Place Continues Unabated
Once again the fight for futility finishes with five draws in five games, leaving all ten participants mired in last place. Only 35 more draws to go - the end is in sight!
Today's headline game was a world championship rematch: Sergey Karjakin vs. Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen chose an aggressive idea against Karjakin's Italian when he played 9...g5, but the star move was 16...Be6!, which looks idiotic at first glance but is in fact a fine move that equalizes the game. Karjakin had an edge at different points in the game, but never anything too serious.
In other games, the player with White did enjoy serious chances, if only for a moment. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was surprised with a Dragon from Hikaru Nakamura, and while MVL's reply won't make a Dragon (player) wanna retire, man, he was awarded a nice opportunity when Nakamura played 19...Nc6 rather than 19...f5. The positional 20.Ndb5 looks great for White, even if he's a pawn down. Instead, Vachier-Lagrave went for a pawn-up rook ending with a sequence starting 20.Nxc6 bxc6 21.Bxf7+, but all rook endings are drawn - including this one. It also seems that Wesley So had a couple of moments where his advantage against Ian Nepomniachtchi was pretty serious, but So evidently disagreed (at least about the second moment) and the players drew with a speedy repetition.
Fabiano Caruana's game with Levon Aronian was also a quick draw. Caruana tested Aronian in the 6.d3 Ruy, and while Aronian had some difficulties against Vachier-Lagrave in their World Cup match a few months ago, Aronian was entirely ready this time around and drew with ease.
Finally, Viswanathan Anand enjoyed the more outwardly attractive position against Michael Adams, but there was no way to convert it into anything serious. The game went 48 moves, the longest of the round (one move longer than MVL-Nakamura and considerably longer than the other three games), but it too finished peacefully.
Games here, with my comments. Tomorrow's pairings are:
- Nepomniachtchi-Caruana
- Aronian - Karjakin
- Carlsen - Anand
- Adams - Vachier-Lagrave
- Nakamura - So
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