Round 2 games + Post-mortem Carlsen-Leko

The second round of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2007 was slightly more exciting with two decisive games and two drawn. Kramnik-Gelfand has just finished; a great game in typical Kramnik-style, grinding down Gelfand from a slightly better position right out of the opening into an ending with a queenside majority that finally led to the win of a pawn. Gelfand tried hard but couldn't hold it in the end.

Before that, here in the press room Alekseev had been interviewed again for the Russian television (this might be a daily thing I presume) and naturally he was smiling a lot, since he had just beaten the only winner of the first round, Mamedyarov. In a Sicilian Scheveningen (regular ChessVibes visitors now know how to pronounce!) Alekseev got a an edge out of the opening and at some point Mamedyarov sacrificed the exchange for the strong Bc4 and it looked like decent compensation with his knight landing on d4, but after 42...Kh7? it was suddenly all over. Naiditsch chose for the "solid at all cost" Ruy Lopez Exchange and he seemed to have a bit actually but Carlsen's active plan on the kingside kept the position balanced. Long before that, Anand-Leko had already ended in a draw after another unsuccessful attempt to get anything more than equality against the Marshall. It's as solid as the Petroff Defense these days (but a bit more fun).



Meanwhile I've been editing the footage of the Carlsen-Leko post-mortem (round 1). The result can be viewed here:

Click To Play

Standings after round 2:

1-2. Alekseev, Kramnik     1.5 
3-6. Anand, Leko,
     Carlsen, Mamedyarov   1.0 
7-8. Gelfand, Naiditsch    0.5

Tomorrow is the first 'rest day'. Actually the participants will play a sort of a blitz exhibition against amateurs (each top GM will play ten games). Of course ChessVibes will try to put it on video...