World Candidates 2014-2: Blood Boils in Round 2
March 11th-April 1st, 2014 (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#
|
Name
|
Flag
|
Rating
|
Result
|
Name
|
Flag
|
Rating
|
| 2.1 | Aronian |
 |
2830 |
1-0
|
Mamedyarov |
 |
2757 |
| 2.2 | Topalov |
 |
2785 |
½-½
|
Anand |
 |
2773 |
| 2.3 | Svidler |
 |
2758 |
1-0
|
Andreikin |
|
2709 |
| 2.4 | Kramnik |
|
2810 |
1-0
|
Karjakin |
|
2766 |
Today’s round saw fighting play as three games saw a decisive result… all white wins. The only draw (Topalov-Anand) went down to king vs. king! Levon Aronian bounced back from yesterday’s loss to Viswanathan Anand to crush Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with a creative queen trap. Peter Svidler outclassed Dmitri Andreikin in a Kalashnikov Sicilian. In a tactical finale, Svidler grabbed space and then grabbed sacrificed material. He ended affairs with the aesthetically-pleasing 28.Rcc1! Kramnik-Karjakin was a weird opening where black got into serious positional trouble. Black had to jettison a pawn and then watch as white ripped open the queen-castled king with 23.Rxc6!? Andreikin failed to find the best responses and Svidler made short work of the young Russian.
Official Site: https://candidates2014.fide.com/
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2014/03/13/2014-world-chess-candidates-khanty-mansiysk-rus/
Viswanathan Anand, 1.5/2 (+1 -0 =1), Peter Svidler, 1.5/2 (+1 -0 =1), Vladimir Kramnik, 1.5/2 (+1 -0 =1), Levon Aronian, 1/2 (+1 -1 =0), Veselin Topalov, 1/2 (+0 -0 =2), Dmitri Andreikin .5/2 (+0 -1 =1), Sergey Karjakin, .5/2 (+0 -1 =1), Shakriyar Mamedyarov, .5/2 (+0 -1 =1)
Anand looks like he’s on a mission through 3 rounds. Made Aronian look more than a little silly, showed beautiful technique to easily hold Topalov, then blew Mamedyarov off the board as Black.
I’m most envious of his draw against Topalov. He was a pawn down for almost the entire game, and castled by hand to boot, yet used much less time and always seemed to have nothing less than full compensation.
I have practical doubts as to whether Anand can hold up for 14 rounds in this field, but I’m rooting for him. Watching him on camera, he seems to be physically relaxed, at ease and focused – and trimmer, too. Perhaps the loss to Carlsen has motivated him.
Lot of pressure off of him!