Carlsen Leads On World Rapid Chess Championship Day 2

He started with two draws, but by finishing with three wins, Magnus Carlsen passed the competition to grab the lead with one day to go at the world rapid championship in Moscow.

There's a four-way tie for first in the women's section with four rounds to go.

"If Magnus starts winning it's bad for the competition. He might just not stop," said one of the on-site commentators, the semi-retired grandmaster Peter Leko. And indeed, it looks like the world champion in standard and blitz chess is finally warming up and gave himself good chances to win back the highest title in rapid chess, which he last won in 2015.

There's still one more tough day ahead for him, and probably the toughest of all. First he will face Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in round 11, and other possible opponents in this Swiss event are heavyweights such as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler, who are all within striking distance of the leader.

Carlsen's start of the day wasn't great. He drew worse rook endgames against both Wang Hao of China and the Russian GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov, and admitted being disappointed about his play to Norwegian TV channel NRK, which is broadcasting the event live.

Carlsen draws Rakhmanov and tells #nrksjakk: "This was very, very bad. I made several decisions that I had to defend myself, this was not good at all. I play several times too quickly and a bit too bad. Then I ended up in a bad position and had to play for a draw. " #rapidblitz

— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) December 27, 2019

It seemed that the flow was back for Carlsen in his game with Viktor Laznicka in round eight, and specifically starting from move 23. IM Danny Rensch analyzed Carlsen's victory over Laznicka here:

His interesting pawn push worked out wonderfully when his opponent tried to keep the position closed; White's knight was suddenly a beautiful blockader that supported the queenside majority.

After beating the Ukrainian GM Alexander Zubov, to whom he had lost last year in the same tournament in St. Petersburg, Carlsen finished his day with an absolutely crushing win against Le Quang Liem. The Vietnamese grandmaster is a bit of a speed chess specialist, but was without a chance here after a slip of the finger in the opening:

As many rivals of Carlsen dropped half-points here and there, the finish of 3/3 was just good enough to grab clear first in round 10. He was obviously happy with the current situation.

Carlsen: "The last few games help a lot. There's still room for improvement, but a day that looked a bit tough, solved itself like a dream. This is what I hoped for, to face the best. The fact that I have a small edge, is very good." #rapidblitz #nrksjakk

— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) December 27, 2019

Whereas the world champ has played 10 fighting games, the same cannot be said for other players. Some chose to play some quick draws today, a strategy Carlsen described as "cynical."

Examples are Motylev-Dominguez (1/2 after 10 moves), Guseinov-Nepomniachtchi (1/2 after 12 moves), Wang Hao-Nepomniachtchi (1/2 after 12 moves), Svidler-Aronian (1/2 after nine moves) and Wang-MVL (1/2 after 12 moves).

 To NRK Magnus calls those playing quick draws at the top 'cynical', and not what people want to see. Hopes that this practical, energy-saving angle doesn't win out in the end. #rapidblitz

— Jonathan Tisdall (@GMjtis) December 27, 2019

A trio of players trails Carlsen by half a point: Wang, Duda and Vachier-Lagrave. The French GM is the only player so far who managed to beat Mamedyarov, and he did so with great play in the opening and early middlegame:

Before going into quick-draw mode, Mamedyarov had beaten Duda. The young Polish GM was careless for one moment, and suddenly lost an exchange:

Duda cannot complain though, because he ended his day scoring two wins with the white pieces after getting into lost positions in both games. Especially tragic was the loss for Alexey Shirov, who left the board quickly, probably knowing the damage he had done.

Like Mamedyarov, Wang scored one victory today before starting to draw several games quickly. The Isle of Man winner was too strong for the veteran GM Ilya Smirin, who was one of the surprise leaders after the first day. The Israeli was quite close to holding as Black, in his favorite King's Indian:

Positive surprises so far are Gadir Guseinov and David Anton being on 7/10, only a point behind Carlsen, and Jakov Geller (Russia) and Anuar Ismagambetov (Kazakhstan) who are on 6.5 points—like the reigning rapid world champion Daniil Dubov. Yu Yangyi's 6/10 is less than expected.

2019 World Rapid Championship | Round 10 Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

In the women's section, again just four rounds were played instead of five. Of the three leaders after the first day, only the Romanian IM Irina Bulmaga managed to keep her lead. She is now joined by the two former world champions—Tan Zhongyi (China) and Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine)—and also Lei Tingjie (China).

Bulmaga will be playing Muzychuk tomorrow after she drew with both Tan and Lei today. That was after beating one of the pre-tournament favorites, Humpy Koneru:

Two big names of Russian chess played a nice game...well, at least for Kateryna Lagno, who beat Valentina Gunina after the latter had taken a very dangerous pawn on g2.

2019 World Rapid Championship | Round 8 Standings (Top 20)

The world rapid championship takes place in the Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moscow. It is played with 15 minutes and a 10-second increment and will see one more day of play on December 27 with rounds 11-15. Right after, the world blitz (three minutes plus two-second increment) will be played December 29-30.

Both the world rapid and the world blitz championships have a total prize fund of $350,000 each, with a first prize of $60,000 for each tournament. Both the women's world rapid and the women's world blitz championships have a total prize fund of $150,000 each, with a first prize of $40,000 for each tournament.

Find more information on the world rapid & blitz here.

Chess.com's day two coverage with Yasser Seirawan and Robert Hess.

Previous report:

• Carlsen, MVL Chasing Leaders After World Rapid Chess Championship Day 1