All draws in the Kings

There were no wins in the King's tournament in Medias, Romania today, but Magnus Carlsen pushed Radjabov all the way in a slightly superior endgame.
Yesterday's victors Boris Gelfand and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu stay ahead.

The leaders shared the point in a slightly odd Queen's Gambit Accepted. At the end Gelfand had two bishops against a pair of knights in a somewhat double-edged position, and both sides perhaps have winning chances. I presume that neither of them wanted to risk their good start in a risky time scramble.

Wang Yue against Ruslan Ponomariov was a rather dry affair with Black more-or-less equalizing and White flogging a dead horse for quite sometime before accepting the inevitable.

Ponomariov: two Catalans, two draws.

Here are some further details:

WhiteRatingCountryResultBlackRatingCountryNo. MovesOpening
Boris Gelfand2752ISR0.5-0.5Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu2672ROU32Queen's Gambit Accepted
Teimour Radjabov2740AZE0.5-0.5Magnus Carlsen 2813NOR72Sicilian defence
Wang Yue2752CHN0.5-0.5Ruslan Ponomariov2733UKR40Catalan opening

Radjabov tried 2.Nc3 and 3.Bb5 against the Sicilian but didn't obtain anything special out of the opening. A series of skirmishes led to a simplified pseudo-ending of 'Rook, Bishop and three pawns against Rook, Knight and three' where Carlsen's passed pawn gave him some chances but Radjabov held firm.

NameCountryRatingPre-tournament rating changeWorld Rankingpoints
Boris GelfandISR2741-9111.5
Liviu-Dieter NisipeanuROU2672+11591.5
Magnus CarlsenNOR2813-11
Ruslan PonomariovUKR2733-4181
Wang YueCHN2752+380.5
Teimour RadjabovAZE2740-130.5

The third round games can be followed tomorrow live at 1.30 pm (London), 2.30 pm (Paris) or 3.30 pm local time.

For this possibility and other information see the Official site


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