Austria upset Norway, Israel upset Spain

Most round-2 top-board matches were closely contested affairs, with Germany, France, the Netherlands, Serbia, Poland and Israel grabbing a second consecutive match win to go into the third round sharing the lead with 4/4 match points.

In all the matches featuring the now co-leaders, a single win tipped the balance in their favour. The heroes for each winning squad were Vincent Keymer (Germany), Maxime Lagarde (France), Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands), Velimir Ivic (Serbia), Mateusz Bartel (Poland) and Evgeny Postny (Israel). Out of these six teams, only Israel defeated an opponent with a higher rating average: Spain.

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As usual, most eyes were put on Magnus Carlsen’s game, despite Norway having drawn their first match. In the end, the Norwegians suffered an upset loss against Austria, who scored the deciding victory on board 4, where Felix Blohberger defeated Lars Oskar Hauge. Shockingly, Carlsen was inches away from losing his game against Valentin Dragnev. The former world champion, let us not forget, comes from suffering two losses against much lower-rated opponents in the Qatar Masters.

Alexandr Predke, Robert Markus and Velimir Ivic (Serbia) | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Keymer 1 - 0 Erdos

Analysis by André Schulz

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Hungary versus Germany | Photo: German Chess Federation

IM Robert Ris analyses Dragnev vs. Carlsen

Standings after round 2

...38 teams

All games - Round 2

Replay games from all rounds at Live.ChessBase.com

Women’s: Spain stun Georgia

Five teams grabbed back-to-back wins in the first two rounds of the women’s championship: Azerbaijan, France, Poland, Spain and Serbia.

The Serbians have the lowest rating average in this group, and they joined the lead by upsetting Armenia in round 2, with Tijana Mandura scoring a 19-win over Maria Gevorgyan on board 4 — the latter was over-optimistic when she played 7.f4 in the following position.

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Mandura realized that her opponent’s pawn push was suspicious and spent almost a half hour before playing the accurate 7...Bg4. The Serbian’s conversion was not flawless, but she nonetheless managed to score a quick win that gave her team a crucial victory.

Serbia versus Armenia | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Even more surprising was Spain’s win over the top seeds from Georgia. Marta García and Ann Matnadze won their games on boards 1 and 4, respectively, to take down the favourites.

García’s passed e-pawn was the key factor in her victory over Bella Khotenashvili.

Playing the ugly-looking 26...Bc8, to deal with the passer, was necessary here. After 26...Kh7 27.e6, on the other hand, there was no stopping White’s initiative, as García showed good technique to make the most of her positional edge until getting a 48-move victory.

Spain versus Georgia | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Standings after round 2

...32 teams

All games - Round 2

Replay games from all rounds at Live.ChessBase.com

Links

• Official site
• Full technical info at Chess-Results
• ChessBase reports from previous editions: 2021 | 2019 | 2017