Five way tie for first place on 1.5/2 in the Tata Steel Masters - 2

The second round of the Tata Steel Masters was not quite as crazy as the first but there were still three decisive games and a couple of near decisive ones. At the end of the day Praggnanandhaa, Caruana, Gukesh, Abdusattorov and Keymer lead on 1.5/2.

Fabiano Caruana started the tournament with a non-event in the first game against Wei Yi, today he chose the London System to surprise his opponent Jorden Van Foreest but ended up with a slightly inferior position. Van Foreest then played a series of inferior moves and lost the endgame. Nodirbek Abdusattorov played a side-line of the French 6.a4, deviating from a game last year against his opponent Leon Luke Mendonca, this turned out to be a bullseye as Mendonca quickly went wrong and after the misguided 13.0-0-0 was lost, the game lasted only 31 moves. The other winner was Praggnanandhaa who beat Pentala Harikrishna. The game saw a sharp opening from Harikrishna but he was soon worse. The key was a Rook and Bishop endgame which both players misjudged. They thought exchanging rooks off would be lost for Harikrishna which was just wrong, in the end, with rooks on, Praggnanandhaa won.

The other games were drawn, Arjun Erigaisi was much better, if not winning, against Anish Giri at several points but the Dutchman was allowed to escape with a draw. Gukesh was a bit worse as black against Vladimir Fedoseev but this advantage never got out of hand. Vincent Keymer voluntarily decided to give up the exchange against Max Warmerdam and it was just bad for him. After various ups and downs Keymer managed a miracle escape for the second day running. Poor old Wei Yi must feel he hasn't started his event yet, for the second day running he got a very dull position, this time as black against Alexey Sarana, and a draw was the result.

In the Challengers there were just three decisive games, half the field is tied for first on 1.5/2.

Masters Round 2 Standings: 1st= Praggnanandhaa, Abdusattorov, Gukesh, Caruana, Keymer 1.5pts, 6th= Sarana, Warmerdam, Wei Yi, Fedoseev, Harikrishna 1pt, 11th= Giri, Erigaisi, Van Foreest 0.5pts, 14th Mendonca 0pts,

Round 3 Pairings: Praggnanandhaa-Erigaisi, Mendonca-Harikrishna, Warmerdam-Abdusattorov, Wei Yi-Keymer, Van Foreest-Sarana, Gukesh-Caruana, Giri-Fedoseev.

Challengers Round 2 Standings: 1st= Lu Miaoyi, L'Ami, Vaishali, Frederik Svane, Bok, Nguyen, Yakubboev 1.5pts, 8th= Suleymanli, Gurel 1pt, 10th= Nogerbek, Divya, Pijpers 0.5pts, 13th= Oro, Bulmaga, 0pts