Chess Classic Mainz 2006

On site report by John Henderson - Day 2

Aronian limbered up for his match with Svidler by playing a 20 board Chess960 simultaneous - and just to make life more difficult for himself, the world No.3 was sporting enough to balance the odds by agreeing to a different starting position for each game! Also making a guest appeareance at the Chess960 simil was international supermodel Carmen Kass, who also doubles as president of Latvian Chess Federation. Aronian score was +16, -1, =3. And if that wasn't mind-boggling enough for the Aronian, he also agreed to play the first-ever offical Chess960 blinfold game, taking on and beating German TV soapstar Karolin Fuchs.

Meanwhile, in the main hall, the three 960 matches continued with Hort vs. Portisch, Harikrishna vs. Naiditsch and Pahtz vs. Kosteniuk

Clerical Medical Chess960 World Championships

Harikrishna-Naiditsch 4,5-3,5

What a comeback for Pentala Hari Harikrischna! After three losses on the first day and, his opponent Arkadi Naiditsch just needed one more point on the second day to become the first junior Chess960 world champion. However, the 20-year old Indian, born in Andhra Pradesh, showed amazing fighting spirit and managed to win four games in a row, beating Germany´s number one 4,5-3,5. And what a dramatic finale for young Arkadi! In the last and decisive game of the day, Naiditsch lost on time! In a very promising position for the 20-year old , according to the Spike-engine, had a big plus, but somehow he managed to lose. Harikrishna told your press officer in the morning that he wanted to concentrate on the FiNet Open, but never thought that he would win four games in a row.

Kosteniuk-Pähtz 5,5-2,5

Alexandra Kosteniuk is the first Chess960 women world champion! After the first day, the score was 2-2, but the Russian favourite won the first two games of the second day and drew the penultimate game, deciding the match in her favour. In the last game the women did not play a quick draw, but enjoyed the audience with a nice game, which was won by the Kosteniuk.

Hort-Portisch 4-4, Hort wins tiebreak 1,5-0,5

In the senior match between the chess legends Hort and Portisch, the younger of the players, 62-year old Vlastimil Hort, already had a slight advantage after the first day, leading 2,5-1,5 against his 69-year old opponent from Hungary. After two draws, Portisch won the seventh game and after a peaceful 20-move draw in the last game, two blitz games had to decide the match! After a draw in the first blitz game, Hort managed to bring his minimal advantage to a full point, winning the beautiful trophy in the end

Photo Gallery - day 2

Aronian playing international supermodel Carmen Kass

Aronian Chess960 simul

Aronian playing first official Chess960 blindfold game against german soapstar Karolin Fuchs

Stage day 2

Aronian and Svidler

Radjabov vs Shredder (0-2)

Svidler vs Spike (0,5-1,5)

Stefan Meyer-Kahlen (Shredder) tweaking his baby