Anand Still Leads With Draws Galore At Sinquefield Cup

The game between Indian star Viswanathan Anand and World Champion Magnus Carlsen is always a much-awaited contest. Carlsen holds a numerical advantage with a score of 12-8 in his favor but was unable to put any real pressure on Anand. Carlsen's second draw in successive games has now made his task of breaking the 2900-rating barrier more difficult. Norwegian journalist Tarjei Svensen has predicted that Carlsen needs a huge score of 9 points out of 11 games to reach 2900. 

Anand won yesterday with black and today drew the world champion. He must be relatively pleased with his start in this year's Sinquefield Cup. Thanks to all draws in round two, Anand is still the sole leader.

During the game, Carlsen visited the confession booth and gave some important advice to everyone.

Magnus Carlsen’s visit to the confession booth #SinquefieldCup pic.twitter.com/7U2636kZBE

— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 18, 2019

Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi played an exciting Sicilian Najdorf. In true Najdorf style, both players went for their opponent's king after they had castled on opposite wings. Black managed to break through first by opening some lines. Caruana still had things under control before he blundered. Nepomniachtchi couldn't find the brilliant win, and the game fizzled to a draw.

"It hurts," Nepomniachtchi said about missing the tactic. American GM Wesley So found the tactic and later remarked: "It's hard to do it over the board. But if Nepo knew it's Black to play and win, he would have found it in seconds." 

In the post-game interview, Nepomniachtchi spoke about time trouble and the reason he doesn't experience it now. He exclaimed: "When I was young like 10 or 11 years old, I used to have time trouble in every game, and at some point my coach told me to play like I have one hour [to play] instead of two hours and it worked!"

Ian used to get into time trouble a lot as a kid and offers some solutions
Spoiler: your 🚂 leaving two hours after round time is a big incentive to play fast #SinquefieldCup pic.twitter.com/KswVcxoI6D

— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 18, 2019

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So had an interesting draw in the trendy Italian. Vachier-Lagrave tried to complicate matters with an exchange sacrifice when So looked equal after the opening. When the smoke cleared, White had a bishop and a passed pawn for a rook, but it was never enough for either side to break through. The game soon fizzled into a draw in a rook ending with three pawns on the same side.

Sergey Karjakin and Ding Liren finished one of the first games on day two. The Russian tried to test Ding's knowledge of the Ruy Lopez, but Ding comfortably equalized. The game lasted 35 moves, but neither side really had much at any point during the game. At the end with a rook and two minors, they repeated moves and split the points in one of the dullest games of round two.

The game between two of the most exciting players on the circuit, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Hikaru Nakamura, lived up to its hype. Within 10 moves they had castled on opposite wings in an opening after 1.d4. Mamedyarov then upped the ante with his trademark kingside attack. By playing the enterprising idea with Rg1 and then g4, he made his intentions clear. Nakamura took his time and came up with a nicely-timed counterattack of his own that forced a queen trade. Even then, Mamedyarov continued his threats against the black king but gave Nakamura a passed a-pawn on the queenside. Like true warriors, the players played until only kings!

Anand is all alone at the top after day two as well. The Sinquefield Cup is one of the biggest titles he hasn't won in his illustrious career.

Round three features a repeat of the last World Championship match between Caruana and Carlsen. Carlsen was at his usual best when asked about tomorrow's game. He exclaimed: "I look forward to the challenge, and it's as good a time as any to actually beat him in a classical game!" [Caruana defeated Carlsen with a score of 3.5-0.5 in the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz last week.]

Round two coverage:

Watch Sinquefield Cup with hosts IM Rensch and GM Hammer #grandchesstour from Chess on www.twitch.tv

You can find all games here as part of our live portal. More photos from the event can be found here. The official site is here.