Chess Super League R2: Brutal Bishops Take Slim Lead
The Brutal Bishops grabbed the sole lead on day two of the Chess Super League on Tuesday. A 3-3 tie with the Quintessential Queens was enough for a one-point gap in match points because the two other winners of the first day lost their second match.
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Being the sole leader with just one victory and one tied match is a rather rare situation for a tournament after two rounds. The Brutal Bishops are in that position as the only team that hasn't lost yet.
Quintessential Queens vs. Brutal Bishops: 3-3
| Bo. | Fed | 6 | Quintessential Queens | Rtg | 3 - 3 | Fed | 4 | Brutal Bishops | Rtg |
| 1.1 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | 2586 | 0 - 1 | GM | Wang, Hao | 2744 | ||
| 1.2 | GM | Karjakin, Sergey | 2743 | ½ - ½ | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2726 | ||
| 1.3 | GM | Hou, Yifan | 2658 | 1 - 0 | GM | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | 2518 | ||
| 1.4 | IM | Tania, Sachdev | 2392 | ½ - ½ | IM | Karavade, Eesha | 2345 | ||
| 1.5 | GM | Iniyan, P | 2529 | 0 - 1 | GM | Sadhwani, Raunak | 2555 | ||
| 1.6 | WIM | Priyanka, K | 2218 | 1 - 0 | WFM | Tarini, Goyal | 2164 |
Having made a swap for their top board, the Quintessential Queens did well on board two where GM Sergey Karjakin got a quick draw with the black pieces vs. GM Vidit Gujrathi.
As a result of the swap, GM Humpy Koneru had to battle the strong Chinese GM Wang Hao, who managed to grind down his opponent from a rather drawish-looking endgame ("not very deservedly, but OK," in his own words). Only 38 moves later, the Indian player made the decisive mistake which set the match score to 3-3.
GM Hou Yifan played another former women's world champion for the second day in a row, and this time the highest-rated female player in the world seemed warmed up and in better form:
Pivotal Pawns vs. Kingslayers: 2.5-3.5
| Bo. | Fed | 5 | Pivotal Pawns | Rtg | 2½ - 3½ | Fed | 3 | Kingslayers | Rtg |
| 2.1 | GM | Gupta, Abhijeet | 2628 | 0 - 1 | GM | Giri, Anish | 2774 | ||
| 2.2 | GM | Ding, Liren | 2799 | ½ - ½ | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. | 2620 | ||
| 2.3 | GM | Abdumalik, Zhansaya | 2507 | ½ - ½ | IM | Soumya, Swaminathan | 2351 | ||
| 2.4 | IM | Kulkarni, Bhakti | 2388 | ½ - ½ | GM | Dzagnidze, Nana | 2524 | ||
| 2.5 | GM | Arjun, Kalyan | 2537 | 1 - 0 | GM | Gukesh, D | 2640 | ||
| 2.6 | WIM | Savitha, Shri B | 2281 | 0 - 1 | WIM | Arpita, Mukherjee | 2229 |
In this match, only the Pivotal Pawns swapped their top boards, which resulted in GM Anish Giri getting a chance to play (and beat!) GM Abhijeet Gupta with the black pieces. From an only slightly worse middlegame position, Gupta committed hara kiri on move 18, allowing a pretty queen sac:
Krazy Knights vs. Ruthless Rooks 2-4
| Bo. | Fed | 1 | Krazy Knights | Rtg | 2 - 4 | Fed | 2 | Ruthless Rooks | Rtg |
| 3.1 | GM | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2736 | 0 - 1 | GM | Radjabov, Teimour | 2763 | ||
| 3.2 | GM | Sasikiran, Krishnan | 2640 | 0 - 1 | GM | Karthikeyan, Murali | 2630 | ||
| 3.3 | WGM | Gomes, Mary Ann | 2354 | 0 - 1 | GM | Muzychuk, Anna | 2533 | ||
| 3.4 | GM | Muzychuk, Mariya | 2536 | ½ - ½ | GM | Harika, Dronavalli | 2511 | ||
| 3.5 | GM | Aryan, Chopra | 2585 | ½ - ½ | IM | Raja, Harshit | 2494 | ||
| 3.6 | WIM | Mrudul, Dehankar | 2256 | 1 - 0 | WFM | Salonika, Saina | 2206 |
The top clash in the third match of the day cannot remain unmentioned wither. GM Teimour Radjabov, who recently came second in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals, once again showed his prowess in online rapid chess as he took down GM Hikaru Nakamura with the black pieces. Nakamura was playing two games at the same time as he was once again combining it with his participation in Titled Tuesday:
All games day 2
The Chess Super League will continue with rounds 3-5 on Wednesday-Friday, followed by playoffs and finals on Saturday and Sunday. The games are played with a time control of 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment. The total prize fund of the event is Rs.40 lakh (U.S. $54,000).
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