Tata Steel 2016 - Video Recap - Round 2

Opening: A00, C65, B35: Benko's opening, Ruy Lopez: Berlin defense, Sicilian: accelerated fianchetto

Player(s): Hou, So, Caruana, Carlsen, Van Wely, Karjakin

GM Max Dlugy recaps Round 2. All draws in round 2 at Wijk aan Zee. But it's not been a boring day. In particular three games were quite interesting. In a complicated line of the Dragon, Van Wely surprised his much higher rated opponent Karjakin by playing 15...Ng4 instead of the canonic 15...Nc4. After 16.Rhe1 Rc5, the game is very complicated. Karjakin thought for about 20 minutes to go through all the tactical variations, and eventually went for 17.f5, which leads to a drawish position with correct play. After three more moves Karjakin offered a draw in a position that he hated - according to the post-game interviews. Good game for the local hero, who succeeded in surviving against a player whose rating is more than 100 points higher than his. Another interesting game was Hou vs. So. After 22 moves Hou found herself having to deal with a "hole" in d4, ideal place for So's knight. She reacted to the danger in a rather passive way, but So wasn't able to take advantage of the situation, giving Hou a chance to equalize. the game then went on with some imprecisions, until it got into a drawn endgame, two bishops against two bishops. The most exciting game of the day was Carlsen vs. Caruana. Magnus started with 1.g3, to see Fabiano copy his first three moves. "Let me see what you've got", must have been Caruana's attitude. Magnus went on to play a novelty with 7.Q2. The game continued along very interesting strategic ideas, that our GM Max Dlugy illustrates in the video. With 7 draws, today's round doesn't change the standings: Caruana, So and Ding lead by half a point after two rounds.