The Week in Chess

Hikaru Nakamura leads the Sinquefield Cup alone on 2/2 after defeating Gata Kamsky in the second round. Whilst Kamsky thought he was slightly worse and didn't like his decision to give up his h7 pawn, Nakamura thought the game unbalanced and got into quite serious time trouble. 27...e5 was a double edged decision from Kamsky and it was Nakamura's excellent 29.Rf1 that really turned the tide, 31.Qf2 was also excellent and seemed to break Kamsky's resistance although there was a tactical burst at the end which led to a winning endgame for Nakamura.

Magnus Carlsen was somewhat disappointed not to at least toruture Levon Aronian longer after emerging from the opening with a serious advantage. Carlsen played the Leningrad Dutch which was a complete surprise. Aronian tried to remember a line he'd prepared a couple of years ago but realised that although 8. d5 e5 9. dxc6 exf4 10. cxb7 Bxb7 11. exf4 Re8 12. O-O Ne4 wins a pawn for white he's not better. Aronian missed 11... Ng5! after which he was quite a bit worse. Carlsen probed on both sides of the board and this went well for some time until he joined Aronian in time trouble. Aronian feared 28... Nb3 and Carlsen suggested he should have played 28... Rxd3 29. Rxd3 Nxc4 which probably isn't quite as clear as he would like. What is clear is that 28...Rb8 wasn't that good and the worst was over for Aronian and a draw agreed on move 40.

Round 2 Standings: Nakamura 2 points, Carlsen 1.5pts, Aronian 0.5pts, Kamsky 0pts.

Round 3 Wed 11th Sept: Carlsen-Nakamura, Kamsky-Aronian.