Qatar 2015 Rd2: A bit of everything

Qatar Masters 2015

Watch it live on Playchess!

When the games are running, clicking on the above link will take you to our live broadcast. It is free and open to all – as a Premium Account member you have access to the Live Book, Chat, chess engine analysis – all in your browser, on a notebook, tablet or even your smartphone. And the Let's Check function will show you what the most powerful computers in the world think of the current position, as each move is being played. Below are the four most-watched boards.

Note that you can download PGNs of the running games (to analyse with your regular software) and even start an engine in the above broadcast window. The arrow buttons allow you to play through the moves backwards and forwards. The f and g-buttons are self-explanatory.

One can understand being intimidated by the World Champion, especially if one is but a 16-year-old junior. The young Indian is known for some exotic opening choices, but 40 minutes on move four is hard to recommend, and as fate would have it, he eventually lost on time.

Chitambaram Aravindh - Magnus Carlsen

This round was Kramnik’s turn to drop a half point, against Polish GM Piorun Kasper, while Anish Giri showed himself to be in excellent form as he demolished Nil Grandelius with black. Defending champion Yu Yangyi outplayed Benjamin Bok in an endgame to take the full point, and was also joined by his compatriot Li Chao, who beat Alexander Ipatov. Li Chao has been one of the more surprising of the Chinese players in general, having not made headlines as his other compatriots, such as Ding Liren, Wei Yi (who won today) and Yu Yangyi, to name a few, but make no mistake, he is now rated 2758 and world no. 14.

Alexander Ipatov fell to Li Chao in round two

Anish Giri was in fine form and beat GM Nils Grandelius in impressive fashion

Anish Giri and Wesley So also stayed in the lead with clean wins, though it must be said that the young Dutch player’s was easily the most spectacular, winning impressively. As to the women, the clash of the day was between no. 1 Hou Yifan against Harika Dronavalli. The Indian obtained a very good position out of the opening, placing Hou on the defensive, but in the end a draw ensued. Alexandra Kosteniuk played a sedate game against Ponomariov and split the point, while young WGM Zhansaya Abdumalik, who had drawn with Bartel Mateusz (2620 FIDE) in the first round, defeated German GM Stefan Bromberger (2521 FIDE) with black in round two after a strong attack initiated with a bishop sac.

Stefan Bromerger - Zhansaya Abdumalik

Speaking of youth, while most of yesterday’s headliners were unable to repeat their performance, it wasn’t without a fight. 14-year-old FM Tabatabaei, who had made Jakovenko sweat in round one, never really got out of the opening against Vassily Ivanchuk, and the fight was fairly one-sided as a result. 12-year-old FM Alireza Firouzja, who downed GM Tregubov in round one, analyzed by IM Sagar Shah in his report, also found himself outgunned by Dariusz Swiercz who came out much better in the opening and built on from there. This tale might also have described the game by the youngest participant 11-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2429 FIDE), who drew GM Shankland in round one. In round two, he found himself in a difficult position against Vietnamese GM Nguyen (2642), but fought back and saved the game.

11-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2429) with two draws against 2600+ GMs

It is not common for the first couple of rounds of such an open to have so many fascinating games, since the pairing are usually so lopsided interest is at a strict minimum, but not here, and it is safe to say that the Qatar Masters Open is already a big success. A special tip of the hat needs to go to the GM commentators who have to somehow try to follow all the action and make sense of it. Today’s Playchess commentary was hosted by GM Daniel King, and it was great fun with so many positions, and games, but above all the possibility to ask questions live and have the grandmaster interact with you.

Full report by IM Sagar Shah to follow...

Photos from the official site by Kateryna Savina

Pairings/Results of Round 2 on 2015/12/21 at 15:00

Schedule for Playchess Commentary

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.