Carlsen, Aronian Fight Out Draw

By Arvind Aaron

World No.1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway and World No.2 Levon Aronian of Armenia fought a 40-move draw in the second round of the Zurich Chess Challenge on January 31, 2014.

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand suffered his second defeat in a row, losing to Hikaru Nakamura with the white pieces. Nakamura sacrificed a knight for attack on move 17 and  then a rook on move 34 to engage his queen and rook on the white king.

Nakamura joined Carlsen and Aronian in the lead on 1.5 points from two games. Carlsen sacrificed a knight and got a draw by perpetual checks against Aronian on move 40.

Three rounds remain to be played in this six player single all-play-all tournament that is taking place at the Savoy in Zurich.

The results (round two): B Gelfand (Isr) 0.5 drew with F Caruana (Ita) 1; V Anand (Ind) 0 lost to H Nakamura (USA) 1.5; M Carlsen (Nor) 1.5 drew with L Aronian (Arm) 1.5.