Wijk aan Zee, Round 2: Seven Splits; Several Scares
Today was a busy day for me (including tournament victory in an unrated local event), so the update will have to be a quick one. In brief, all seven games Group A games in the Tata Steel tournament were drawn, though this was not for want of either effort or opportunity. You can get the quick report on the tournament site; I'll just note that Ivan Sokolov's failure to finish a won game against Hikaru Nakamura was shocking. (The failure to find the stylish middlegame tactic given in the aforementioned report was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.) In part it's a testament to the resilience and incredible defensive skills of Nakamura and the super-elite in general, but even so Sokolov should have pulled it out. (All the group A games here, with some comments to Nakamura-Sokolov.)
Pentala Harikrishna and Sergey Karjakin thus remain the clear leaders, with 1.5/2; Anish Giri and Hou Yifan are tied for last with half a point apiece; and everyone else has a point (apiece). Here are the pairings for round 3, on Monday:
- Carlsen - van Wely
- Harikrishan - Aronian
- Anand - Caruana
- Sokolov - Giri
- Leko - Nakamura
- Karjakin - Wang Hao
- Hou Yifan - L'Ami