Shirov won his second game and so took the lead by grinding down young Caruana in a rook and opposite-bishop ending. Not particularly convincing as Caruana surely should have defended this better, but effective on the day.
Nakamura was in his element as he played some flamboyant sacrifices in an exciting Najdorf against Van Wely. A fantastic struggle that I will no doubt analyze soon.
Carlsen and Smeets had a theoretical tussle in the Anti-Meran gambit with twenty-plus moves of theory leading to a complex middlegame which Carlsen turned in his favour. I think that 23...Kb7 is a clear improvement for Black, but no doubt Carlsen was also ready for that!
The overall results in the A-group were as follows:
| Viswanathan Anand | IND | (2790) | 0.5-0.5 | Nigel Short | ENG | (2696) |
| Hikaru Nakamura | USA | (2708) | 1-0 | Loek van Wely | NED | (2641) |
| Magnus Carlsen | NOR | (2810) | 1-0 | Jan Smeets | NED | (2657) |
| Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | (2749) | 0.5-0.5 | Sergey Tiviakov | NED | (2662) |
| Alexei Shirov | ESP | (2723) | 1-0 | Fabiano Caruana | ITA | (2675) |
| Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | (2788) | 0.5-0.5 | Peter Leko | HUN | (2739) |
| Sergey Karjakin | RUS | (2720) | 0.5-0.5 | Leinier Dominguez | CUB | (2712) |
Here are the January 2010 ratings (updating the old ratings given yesterday) of the A-Group players.
| Seed | Name | Country | Rating |
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 2810 |
| 2 | Viswanathan Anand | IND | 2790 |
| 3 | Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | 2788 |
| 4 | Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | 2749 |
| 5 | Peter Leko | HUN | 2739 |
| 6 | Alexei Shirov | ESP | 2723 |
| 7 | Sergey Karjakin | RUS | 2720 |
| 8 | Leinier Dominguez | CUB | 2712 |
| 9 | Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 2708 |
| 10 | Nigel Short | ENG | 2696 |
| 11 | Fabiano Caruana | ITA | 2675 |
| 12 | Sergey Tiviakov | NED | 2662 |
| 13 | Jan Smeets | NED | 2657 |
| 14 | Loek van Wely | NED | 2641 |
In the B-Group Giri again wins against one of the highly fancied players. We have also modified the ratings in groups B and C which are now completely up-to-date.
Erwin l'Ami NED (2615) 0.5-0.5 Wesley So PHI (2656)
Varuzhan Akobian USA (2628) 0-1 Arkadij Naiditsch GER (2687)
Parimarjan Negi IND (2621) 0.5-0.5 Anna Muzychuk SLO (2523)
P Harikrishna IND (2672) 0.5-0.5 David Howell ENG (2606)
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu ROM (2681) 0-1 Anish Giri NED (2588)
Dimitri Reinderman NED (2573) 0-1 Tomi Nyback FIN (2643)
Ni Hua CHN (2657) 1-0 Emil Sutovsky ISR (2657)
Robson wins his second game in the C-Group.
S Swaminathan IND (2323) 0.5-0.5 Sjoerd Plukkel NED (2279)
Li Chao-b CHN (2604) 0.5-0.5 Daniele Vocaturo ITA (2495)
Robin v Kampen NED (2456) 0.5-0.5 Benjamin Bok NED (2322)
Kjetil Lie NOR (2547) 0-1 Zhaoqin Peng NED (2402)
Nils Grandelius SWE (2515) 0-1 Stefan Kuipers NED (2340)
Abhijeet Gupta IND (2577) 0.5-0.5 Marya Muzychuk UKR (2447)
Ray Robson USA (2570) 1-0 Robin Swinkels NED (2495)
For further information official site
