World Blitz.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I thought Aronian was going down in round 24 against Ponomariov, but he seems to have somehow muddled his way through to a won ending!

Poor old Svidler started with 7/10 but has collapsed since then, scoring just 4.5/13 points.

[Eoin Devane]

Once again, Aronian was completely lost (this time against Movsesian) and came through to win. He's three points clear now.

[David Sedgwick]

Is it live only, or can you watch it later?

With the help of Google Translation I have discovered that "Чемпионат Мира по Блицу" on the right hand side of the video page means "World Blitz Championship" and the three links under that heading are the dates of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Clicking on each of them lets you watch the coverage from that day. So you can watch the coverage later. This is good news, as I'm out most of tomorrow afternoon, so won't be able to watch it live.

I think I'm right in saying that the last ten rounds tomorrow (Thursday) start two hours earlier, at 1000 UK time.

[Eoin Devane]

I think I'm right in saying that the last ten rounds tomorrow (Thursday) start two hours earlier, at 1000 UK time.

Fantastic! There goes any chance of doing anything productive tomorrow morning, then.

[Eoin Devane]

Carlsen beat Aronian with black in the penultimate round of the day. Carlsen then drew with Karjakin, while Aronian was defeated by the comeback hero Rauf Mamedov. So the standings at the end of day 2 are:

1. Aronian - 18.5
2. Carlsen - 17
3. Radjabov - 16
4. Nepomniachtchi - 16
5. Kramnik - 16
6. Nakamura - 15
7. Gelfand - 15
8. Mamedyarov - 14
9. Vachier-Lagrave - 14
10. Grischuk - 14
11. Eljianov - 14
12. Karjakin - 13.5
13. Savchenko - 13
14. Svidler - 13
15. Movsesian - 12.5
16. Caruana - 12
17. Grachev - 12
18. Ponomariov - 11.5
19. Mamedov - 11
20. Andreikin - 11

You have to think it's between the top two for the win now, with only ten rounds to go, although Radjabov and Nepomniachtchi showed good form today to get back into contention, so you never know.

[Eoin Devane]

Poor old Svidler started with 7/10 but has collapsed since then, scoring just 4.5/13 points.

When I looked at the scores at the end of yesterday, I thought that Svidler could be a dark horse to win the whole thing. His results today were very disappointing - 5/18. He could still have a big say in the tournament, though, as he has to play Aronian in the final round.

[Eoin Devane]

Rauf Mamedov's on fire! He's just beaten Carlsen to follow up his win over Aronian in the final round yesterday. If only he didn't start so terribly ...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Aronian finished with two losses, but still won:

http://www.russiachess.org/online/blitz ... gs&38.html

Radjabov second and Carlsen third.

[Eoin Devane]

I've just finished watching the last couple of rounds a short while ago. Congratulations to Aronian - the way he's been playing over the last few months makes him most deserving of a World title.

Overall, I thought it was a really enjoyable tournament to follow. This was of course aided by the truly excellent live video coverage - as I said before, I only wish I could understand Russian.

For me that star of the tournament, Aronian excluded, was clearly Rauf Mamedov. 0/10 and then 18/28 to finish in 12th place, just below 50%. If there were another day's play he might just have won it! Ironically, the player who finished on the same score as him, Ian Nepomniachtchi (I still can't work out how to pronounce his name - what the Russian commentators seemed to be saying had many fewer syllables than that name looks like it requires), had almost the opposite tournament: he was 17/29 and only finished on 18/38.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

For me that star of the tournament, Aronian excluded, was clearly Rauf Mamedov. 0/10 and then 18/28 to finish in 12th place, just below 50%. If there were another day's play he might just have won it! Ironically, the player who finished on the same score as him, Ian Nepomniachtchi (I still can't work out how to pronounce his name - what the Russian commentators seemed to be saying had many fewer syllables than that name looks like it requires), had almost the opposite tournament: he was 17/29 and only finished on 18/38.

As it was a double-round round-robin tournament, you could look at who they played in their winning and losing streaks and see if that explains anything. BTW, the only link I found to the video coverage was a single streaming file that was hours long and seemingly with no way to skip forward to the games. Are there any files available that are chopped up, or a highlights one that shows the best games?

PS. I also noticed that Ponomariov and Caruana came bottom. It must be painful to end up with only 7 wins, 11 draws and 20 losses (Ponomariov) or 11 wins, 5 draws and 22 losses (Caruana)! I think the most draws was Grishuk (14) and least losses was Radjabov (8). Savchenko and Movessian got the least number of draws (3). Ponomariov got the least number of wins (7) and Caruana the most number of losses (22). Most wins was Aronian (20).

Hopefully there is a +=- page summary somewhere, as the page I was using only had final score and number of wins. I know it can be worked out from that, but I don't see why they leave out the other columns from the normal +=- summary.

[Eoin Devane]

BTW, the only link I found to the video coverage was a single streaming file that was hours long and seemingly with no way to skip forward to the games. Are there any files available that are chopped up, or a highlights one that shows the best games?

That's the one I've been using. But then I do have an insanely good (University) internet connection here. You could try these on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bumblebee1607

[Christopher Kreuzer]

BTW, the only link I found to the video coverage was a single streaming file that was hours long and seemingly with no way to skip forward to the games. Are there any files available that are chopped up, or a highlights one that shows the best games?

That's the one I've been using. But then I do have an insanely good (University) internet connection here. You could try these on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bumblebee1607

Thanks! I just watched Nakamura's reaction to the pawn Aronion took on d6! Not developing that bishop on c8 was costly.

[Eoin Devane]

Thanks! I just watched Nakamura's reaction to the pawn Aronion took on d6! Not developing that bishop on c8 was costly.

Far be it from me to criticise a 2700, but I did get the impression from watching some of Nakamura's games that he sometimes seems to be trying to beat his opponent simply by moving faster than him. This was one of those games - he was a minute up on the clock, having used only his increments for the first twenty or so moves, and then just blundered that d6 pawn. I wonder if he spent a bit more of his time, whether he might do a bit better in some of these games.

He is good for the reactions. Take a look at his endgames against Svidler and Nepomniachtchi (I think) in which he was clearly annoyed at having to play on rather than agreeing the draw. The Svidler one is: http://www.youtube.com/user/bumblebee16 ... uiKdv6UzkU

[Carl Hibbard]

He is good for the reactions. Take a look at his endgames against Svidler and Nepomniachtchi (I think) in which he was clearly annoyed at having to play on rather than agreeing the draw.

The Svidler one is: http://www.youtube.com/user/bumblebee16 ... uiKdv6UzkU

Whilst I agree he was right I didn't really like the overly cocky glance at the camera whilst tutting

[Eoin Devane]

The other one was Round 38 v. Nepo. More head-shaking as he repeatedly checked his opponent. Less exaggerated this time, though.