There was only one win today, in round 2 of the 2022 Candidates tournament, but the games were no less exciting or hard-fought than they were yesterday.

The marquee matchup was between the two leaders, who were also the winners of the last two Candidates tournaments. With White, one might have expected Ian Nepomniachtchi to put the pressure on Fabiano Caruana; the reality was entirely the opposite. Caruana’s remarkable novelty, 10…Ng4, invited mind-boggling complications, had White chosen 11.Re2 Qf6 12.d4. (I analyzed this variation in detail, with an assist from my friend Alex Herrera. If you look at no other chess today, do look at that analysis. The variations - and I’m sure that Team Caruana had worked all of them out, and more, before the game - are breathtaking.) Nepo sidestepped 12.d4 for only slightly calmer variations, sacrificing first one pawn and then another to build a kingside attack. Caruana played more or less perfectly up until Nepo’s 30.Bb2, but short of time (and probably understandably nervous about the complications) decided against the critical 30…Rxb2. As far as I can tell, Black is winning there, but it’s not simple at all, especially without a lot of time to work things out. He therefore allowed a repetition, and the pre-round leaders exited the round the same way.

One player won, but since he - Hikaru Nakamura - had lost in round 1, this only brought him back to 50%. His victim was Teimour Radjabov, and the game was a long one that went back and forth between Nakamura having a serious advantage to Radjabov achieving equality. This happened so many times that the recap would be as long as the analysis. So have look there; all I’ll say here is that it was a tribute to Nakamura’s doggedness that he pulled out the win.

The sanest game of the day was between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Ding Liren. Ding “won” the first half of the game, but after his 23…g5? it was Duda who was pressing. His 34.Bd2?! seemed a bit careless, and after 34…f5! Ding equalized. Ding could have played more ambitiously near the end, but seemed set on making a draw, which was agreed just after the first time control.

Finally, Alireza Firouzja turned 19 today, but Richard Rapport very nearly gave him the worst possible “present”. The opening was slightly bizarre, with Rapport’s 9.c5 creating a position with a striking resemblance to the position he suffered against Duda (with reversed colors) in round 1. Rapport outplayed Firouzja and had a winning double-rook ending, but he failed to convert. The win was never obvious, but I’ve found three moments (technically four, but that’s because one of the positions was repeated) where White could have won. In the end, Firouzja avoided a loss on his birthday, and while his play in the first two rounds has been shaky, he has survived, is still just half a point out of first place, and has gotten two of his black games out of the way.

The games, with my analysis, are here. These are the pairings for round 3, tomorrow (Sunday):

Ding (.5) - Rapport (1)

Caruana (1.5) - Duda (1)

Radjabov (.5) - Nepomniachtchi (1.5)

Firouzja (1) - Nakamura (1)