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Rd. 3. - Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Fabiano Caruana

Written and annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

 

The last game of the night was between Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. In an interesting Grunfeld, Caruana sacrificed a pawn. His piece activity was enough to compensate for it and perhaps even help a little more. Nakamura was doing his best to keep everything under control; unfortunately Caruana then made a couple of mistakes. He allowed Nakamura to go into an opposite-colored bishop endgame with rooks where White was up a pawn. After a long period of torture, the game was drawn.

Rd. 3 - GM Magnus Carlsen vs. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Written and annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.
 

Next, Magnus Carlsen converted a slow position against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Frenchman came out worse from the opening, but he had some chances to defend properly. Vachier-Lagrave missed them and Carlsen’s advantage started to grow. Eventually, very precise play was required from MVL, but he was not up to the task. He lost one pawn, then another, and ultimately the game.

Rd. 3 - GM Levon Aronian vs. GM Anish Giri

Written and annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.
 

Levon Aronian vs. Anish Giri was a very closed affair. No big pawn breaks occurred; instead it was a game that was defined by maneuvers and repositioning. Aronian was always better, continually had a slight edge, but at no point was there a clear path to improvement. After a couple of slight mistakes, Giri’s position was perfectly fine and the opposite-colored bishops sealed the result.

Rd. 2 - GM Alexander Grischuk vs. GM Viswanathan Anand

Written and annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

 

The first decisive game of the day was the match between Alexander Grischuk and Vishy Anand.  The Russian played the “correct bishop opening”, as he calls it, and obtained a slight edge after Anand’s inaccurate, and somewhat strange, development. Grischuk was in severe time trouble, but had the positional pressure. Anand tried to complicate the game but ended up making mistakes while playing quickly. Grischuk punished the mistakes accurately and won the game.

Rd. 2 - GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Magnus Carlsen

Written and annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

 

Fabiano Caruana against Magnus Carlsen was a heartstopper. In a position that was very interesting, both players simply let their clock run way too low. An unbelievable time scramble occurred with both players falling to mere seconds to make their final moves. The engine evaluations kept changing wildly as the game became a bullet battle. On move 40, Caruana made a horrific blunder with only seconds left on his clock. Caruana resigned as soon as he made time control.

Rd. 2 - GM Anish Giri vs. GM Wesley So

Written and annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

 

Another draw for round two. A very blocked position arose from the English opening in Anish Giri vs. Wesley So. Perhaps the Dutch player had a very small advantage from the opening with the superior pawn structure, but it wasn’t much. Eventually, So was able to position his pieces well and advance the queenside pawns even though Giri did not create any real threats. The game was drawn in an opposite colored bishop endgame.

Rd. 2 - GM Veselin Topalov vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura

Written and annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.
 

Veselin Topalov became the sole leader of the 2015 Sinquefield Cup. He played an excellent pawn sacrifice against Hikaru Nakamura, taking a commanding control of the dark squares in return for the lost material. Nakamura could not hold his position together and was forced to return his material. Unfortunately, Hikaru’s position was not good; Topalov’s bishops were dominant. After much maneuvering, Topalov reached a winning endgame thanks to a cute zugzwang and converted his win.

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