As has been discussed practically everywhere, including the mass (non-chess) media, the eagerly awaited game between Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen only served to fan the flames lit at the Sinquefield Cup when Carlsen resigned on move 2 without saying anything to the media afterward. (“Chess speaks for itself”, to coin a phrase.) This situation has been discussed elsewhere on the blog, and will undoubtedly continue to be discussed, so I’ll stick to the chess played in rounds 5-8 of the Julius Baer Generation Cup instead.
Carlsen started the day with a slim lead over four challengers: Arjun Erigaisi, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Niemann, and Vasyl Ivanchuk. It was a difficult day for the champ, however, even excluding the non-game with Niemann. In round 5, he was, surprisingly, unable to convert a better, sometimes winning rook ending against David Navara, and had to settle for a draw. Round 6 was the Niemann protest game, and with the tournament’s 3-1-0 scoring system Carlsen had only scored one point out of six in the day’s first two rounds. Round 7 was his best game of the day, a well-played victory over Levon Aronian (though after a dubious opening and early middlegame), and in round 8 he was very fortunate to save a game against Praggnanandhaa that was repeatedly lost.
As for his rivals: Erigaisi beat Niemann in round 5 and Aronian in round 6, making it a five-game winning streak after his round 1 loss to Carlsen. Pragg held him to a draw in round 7, and he only drew with Ivan Saric in round 8. Nevertheless, his 17 points put him in the lead, two points ahead of Carlsen and Pragg, who drew in round 5 and defeated Vincent Keymer in round 6. As for Ivanchuk, it wasn’t great, but he was still well in the running for qualification to the knockout stage. He drew with fellow old-timer Boris Gelfand in round 5, and then lost to Christopher Yoo, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, but did bounce back with a win against Keymer in round 8. That left him with 13 points, tied for fourth-sixth with Niemann and Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
Here is a selection of games from the day 2 action; on to day 3.
Thanks for the annotated games! I'm enjoying them.
I liked your analogy about the bank teller (although who visits a physical bank anymore? ;-)). It's true--the closed Catalan position can lull you to sleep, since it's not "supposed" to have those Sicilian-style tactics.