Tal Memorial Round 2: Carlsen Strikes

World #1 Magnus Carlsen beat Boris Gelfand in a thrilling clash in round 2 of the Tal Memorial.

In an unbalanced game, Carlsen kept the pressure on Gelfand until he was rewarded with victory after 38 moves.

Carlsen tweeted: "Extremely complicated and difficult game today. Very glad to have come out on top after Gelfand lost the thread at the end".

Lev Aronian looked to have a chance to pile more misery on Vladimir Kramnik, who lost his first round game, but he allowed Kramnik the tactical shot 31...Bxh3 and the game finished as a draw.

World champion Vishy Anand had no problems holding Peter Svidler to a draw with a solid Caro-Kann, and Sergey Karjakin chose a relatively quiet line against Hikaru Nakamura's Najdorf leading to another draw.

The joint leaders after the first round, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vassily Ivanchuk met in round 2 and after an evenly fought battle the game seemed to be heading for a draw when Nepo blundered a pawn to give Ivanchuk hope of grabbing the sole lead for himself. However, there was no way to make the extra pawn count and this last game to finish also ended as a draw.

No need to ask who won...Carlsen and Gelfand at their post-match press conference

Peter Svidler and Vishy Anand quickly drew their second round game

So after 2 rounds of the Tal Memorial, Magnus Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi are the joint leaders.

The 2011 Tal Memorial runs from 16-25 November in Moscow, with one rest day on 21 November. Games start at 15:00 local time (11:00 UTC), except the last round which is 2 hours earlier. The time control is 40 moves in 100 minutes, followed by 20 moves in 50 minutes, then 15 minutes to finish, with a 30 second increment from the start of the game. The total prize fund is €100,000 with the winner receiving €30,000.

The official site (in Russian). Pictures from Chess-News.ru.