Anand Wins Botvinnik Memorial

Viswanathan Anand continued his winning ways on the second day of the elite rapid event of the Botvinnik Memorial, following up a draw with Vladimir Kramnik by defeating Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen. He wound up with an undefeated 4.5/6 score, a full point and a half more than Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian. Kramnik beat Carlsen in round 5 while Aronian beat Carlsen in round 4; finally, Aronian beat Kramnik in the last round to catch him. As you'll have gathered, Carlsen "castled queenside"; that is, he lost all three of his games (0-0-0) and finished in last overall with just a point and a half.

The concurrent women's event was won by Viktoria Cmilyte, who lost her first game (on Friday) and the last game (on Saturday) but won all four intervening contests. Elina Danielan took second with 3.5, Tatiana Kosintseva third with 2.5 and Humpy Koneru was last with 2 points.

After those events finished, they played a round of tandem chess, with the following generally nationally-based teams: Anand & Koneru, Kramnik & Kosintseva, Aronian & Danielan and Carlsen & Cmilyte. Anand & Koneru had White (in all games, the women moved first for both sides) in their first two rounds and won with it against first Kramnik's team and then Aronian's before drawing with Black against Carlsen & Cmilyte. Aronian & Danielan won with White against Carlsen's team in round 1 and Kramnik's in round 3; finally, Kramnik & Kosintseva drew with White against Carlsen & Cmilyte in round 2.

You can watch all the proceedings here. The games in all three events were quite lively and interesting, and contrary to at least one opinion I've seen about the men's event, reasonably well played, too, and I hope to present one or two of the event games either on here or in one of my upcoming video shows.

Anand Leads Botvinnik Memorial Rapid Event After Day 1

The battle between the fearsome foursome of Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian is half over, and so far it's the world champion, Anand, who is in the lead. The play was full of fight, but five of the six games were drawn. The only decisive game came in the second round when Anand defeated Aronian with the black pieces. Tomorrow, we'll have the second cycle: the same pairings with colors reversed.

The event website is here, and as with the World Cup there's live coverage (in Russian only, except when they interview non-Russian speaking players like Anand) that can be replayed afterwards as well - just use the scroll bar. (Right now, there are post-game interviews with both the men's and women's players - there's an accompanying women's event with Humpy Koneru, Viktorija Cmilyte, Tatiana Kosintseva and Elina Danielian. On Sunday and Monday, the men and women will join up for a tandem event, with those from the same country teaming up [in the three relevant cases; the other team is Carlsen + Cmilyte].)