Day 2 of the World Rapid Championships are finished, and only one day remains. After 10 of 15 rounds in the Open (Men's) section, Magnus Carlsen is riding a three-game winning streak and leads his closest pursuers by half a point. He has eight points out of 10, half a point more than Wang Hao, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. (11 players are a further half a point behind.)
In the Women's section, eight of 12 rounds are finished, and there's a four-way tie at the top. Irina Bulmaga, Tan Zhongyi, Lei Tingjie, and Mariya Muzychuk all have 6.5/8.
Carlsen didn't dominate the Open event the first two days, and his success has come about through a sort of "Swiss gambit" while most of the leaders spent the second day drawing their games. He'll be tested on day three, but the problem for the field is that when Carlsen is confident, he generally steamrolls the opposition. In the Women's section, Bulmaga was dominant most of the way, and should have won in the penultimate round against Lei to really mark her superiority over the field. Despite her lapse at the end of that game, she has played very well, and we'll have a look at her impressive win over Humpy Koneru (who is in a six-way tie half a point behind the leaders). We'll also have a look at Carlsen's very impressive win over Le Quang Liem in round 10, the game that put him in clear first entering day three.