After Black’s big success in round 1, I thought with White having more high-rated players today the results would flip. Surprisingly, they didn’t: Black went +1 despite having approximate rating equality on four boards and a serious deficit on the other three. Second seed Ian Nepomniachtchi had White against Ju Wenjun and achieved essentially nothing, dragging the game out for 80 moves because of the rating difference rather than because there was any “there” there. The top seed, World Champion Ding Liren, also achieved nothing with White against Alexander Donchenko’s King’s Indian (but he mercifully allowed the game to come to a speedy end). And worst of all for the favorites, Jorden Van Foreest completely underestimated his opponent’s tactical possibilities, and soon found himself lost against his countryman Max Warmderdam, who managed to cash in the full point. (Van Foreest, alas, has the same number of points that he started with.)
There were two other wins on the day, neither of which featured remotely satisfactory play by the losers. Parham Maghsoodloo either forgot his prep as Black in a well-known Berlin line or had an “inspiration” at the board. Whichever it was, 23.Qxh7! was a proverbial cold shower, and Black was completely lost. Firouzja finished in style, and the only player to win a game with White so far in the tournament is also the only player with a 2-0 score. The other decisive game was Wei Yi vs. Gukesh, which saw Wei Yi lose more or less the way he won in round 1. Then Donchenko tried an unnecessary and bad sacrifice that took an equal position and made it (nearly) lost; Wei Yi’s attempt to sharpen the play with some sacrifices instead of nursing a small positional plus had the same effect.
The remaining games - Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Anish Giri vs. Vidit Gujrathi were both correct draws of theoretical interest, though little drama. (You can’t have everything.)
The round 2 games, with my comments, are here; here’s what’s on tap for round 3:
Warmerdam (1) - Firouzja (2)
Ju Wenjun (.5) - Van Foreest (0)
Vidit (1) - Nepomniachtchi (1.5)
Donchenko (.5) - Giri (1.5)
Gukesh (1.5) - Ding Liren (1)
Praggnanandhaa (1) - Wei Yi (1)
Maghsoodloo (.5) - Abdusattorov (1)