The Chess Mind

Another great round, again with three decisive games out of four.

The hero of round 1, Peter Svidler, won his second consecutive game. His victim was Francisco Vallejo Pons, who again lost with White, again achieving a terrible position practically in the opening itself. The game offers a nice demonstration of the old warning about premature flank attacks, as Svidler broke open the center and proved that it was Vallejo's king that was in danger, not his own.

Svidler was caught at 2-0 by his namesake, Peter Leko, who likewise defeated an opponent now on 0-2. The Sveshnikov Sicilian may look positionally crazy to the uninitiated, and when all goes well for White, that impression can be powerfully confirmed. And that's what happened: Teimour Radjabov, with Black, amassed weaknesses on d5, d6, f5 and a5; and Leko took advantage beautifully, concluding with a mating attack.

Vassily Ivanchuk is half a point back, thanks to his win over Levon Aronian. Ivanchuk maintained a clear edge for many moves, but only won after Aronian (with 43...e5? rather than 43...Nb1) missed a bone-crusher at the end of the game.

Finally, Veselin Topalov enjoyed a slight advantage throughout his game with Etienne Bacrot, but was unable to convert it into something substantial: draw.

Round 2 Results:

Vallejo-Svidler 0-1
Leko-Radjabov 1-0
Ivanchuk-Aronian 1-0
Topalov-Bacrot 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 2:

Leko, Svidler 2
Ivanchuk 1.5
Aronian, Bacrot 1
Topalov .5
Radjabov, Vallejo 0

Round 3 Pairings:

Svidler-Leko (only one perfect score, at most, after this one)
Bacrot-Vallejo
Aronian-Topalov
Radjabov-Ivanchuk

Games can be replayed here, while a couple of on-site videos can be accessed via the ChessBase site, here.