Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri scored victories to join the leaders. As many as four players are sharing first place with 1.5/2. 

Round 2 of the Tata Steel Masters again produced two decisive outcomes. Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri beat Vincent Keymer and Gukesh D respectively and caught up with the leaders Ding Liren and Nodirbek Abdusattorov who drew their games.

Anish Giri – Gukesh D 1-0

The opponents followed the footsteps of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Lenier Dominguez in the well-known line of the Ragozin Defense up to move 14 when Anish introduced a new approach 14.Rc2 with the idea of doubling his rooks along the e-file. Somewhat surprisingly, this idea bore fruit just a few moves later after Gukesh made a fatal error 17…Kh8?

Anish did not need to be asked twice and quickly pounced on Black’s king: 18. Neg5! hxg5 19. Rxe6 fxe6 20. Rxe6 Qxe6 21. Bxe6 Bxf3 22. Qf5 Be4 23. Qxe4 Rxd4? (more stubborn was 23…Re8).

Black was doomed due to poor coordination of his pieces and lag in development. It did not take Anish long to finish off his opponents and score his first victory in the event. 

Wesley So – Arjun Erigaisi ½–½

The game saw an interesting line of the Gruenfeld reversed with Arjun’s committing inaccuracy 12…Be6 early on. After Wesley’s energetic reaction, Black’s king got stuck in the center while White’s pieces started eyeing the d4-pawn. Erigaisi had no desire to go down meekly and engineered some interesting counterplay, first thrusting his pawn to g5 and then sacrificing c6-pawn. Although White got a sizable advantage, he had to find a study-like move to keep the ball rolling:

After 21.e4! Black would have been in deep trouble. Wesley, however, opted for sluggish 21.Ba4, allowing Arjun to get serious activity with 21…h5. After trading a couple of rooks and the queens, the opponents steered into an endgame in which White had a dangerous c-passer, but Black had enough resources to stop it and force a draw. 

Ding Liren – Parham Maghsoodloo ½–½

In a topical line of Morphy Defense in Ruy Lopez (a pet variation of Alexey Shirov), the Chinese GM traded two minor pieces for a rook but did not get much. Moreover, Black could have ended up in a promising endgame had Parham avoided opening the files for White’s rooks.

After a natural 24…d5 keeping the position semi-closed, Parham is more than OK. However, he opted for the erroneous 24…Nxe5 and after 25. Nxe5+ dxe5 26. Rxe5 Rg8 27. g4 Rd8 28. Rae1 White’s rooks jumped into action while his pawns moved forward. 

The opponents traded several mistakes in subsequent play with Ding erring last. 

White has an overwhelming advantage, but after 49.Rd3? (49.Rc7!) Rf7+ 50. Kg6 Rg7+ Black came out dry and reached a draw on move 79. 

Levon Aronian – Praggnanandhaa ½–½

Rameshbabu comfortably equalized in the Ruy Lopez Open, methodically traded most of the pieces, and reached a draw in a rook endgame. 

Vincent Keymer – Magnus Carlsen 0-1

The World Champion surprised his young opponent with a rare 7…c6 move in the Gruenfeld Defence and got a quite comfortable position. Choosing between solid and active approaches, Vincent played somewhat inconsistently and, by move 15, handed the initiative to Magnus. Carlsen advanced and consolidated his queenside pawn-chain and after another quasi-active move by Keymer 28. Bg5? he sacrificed an exchange and got in the driving seat. 

After 28..Nxe4! 29. Ne7+ Rxe7 30. Bxe7 Nxc3 Black’s queenside passers are way too dangerous. 

Right before the time control, Magnus decided to simplify and transposed into a rook endgame with two extra pawns. The evaluation of this ending is debatable, but from a practical standpoint, it was very difficult to defend for White. Carlsen went on to convert his advantage in an exemplary manner and notched up his first win in the event. 

Nodirbek Abdusattorov – Fabiano Caruana ½–½

Fabiano Caruana voluntarily went for an inferior endgame with a shattered pawn structure that emerged out of a rare line of the Ragozin Defense, but apparently, it was not as bad as it looked after all. Nodirbek pressured his formidable opponent for most of the game but had to settle for a draw in a rook ending.

Jorden Van Foreest – Richard Rapport ½–½

Up to move 15, the opponents reproduced the game between Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand in the Petrov Defence played back in 2009, in which White sacrificed a pawn for the initiative.  

Fabiano naturally kept the queens on the board with 15.Qg3. The point is that 15…Nxa1 16.Qxg7 Rf8 17. Bg5 is too risky for Black. 

Jorden traded the queens with 15.Qxc8?! and switched to fighting for a draw in an endgame down a pawn. Just like in Round 1, the Dutchman eventually saved a half-point but only with some effort. 

Standings after Round 2: 1-4. Magnus Carlsen, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Ding Liren, Anish Giri – 1.5; 5-11. Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Arjun Erigaisi, Praham Maghsoodloo, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Jorden Van Foreest – 1; 12-13. Richard Rapport and Vincent Keymer – 0.5; 14th Gukesh D – 0.

Round 3 parings:

Richard Rapport – Wesley So
Fabiano Caruana – Jorden Van Foreest,
Gukesh D – Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Parham Maghsoodloo – Anish Giri,
Magnus Carlsen – Ding Liren
Praggnanandhaa R – Vincent Keymer
Arjun Erigaisi – Levon Aronian

Photos:  tatasteelchess.com, Jurriaan Hoefsmit