ChessMexico 2007, Round 2 : You might be happy to know that there was some blood spilled on the chessboard today after yesterday's play-safe. Kramnik overcame Morosevich to score his first full point. Aronian, my other favorite, lost today against Anand but we will get to that later.


Above, Kramnik, playing white, sacrificed his knight after 13. ed5 fe5 14. bc4 ed4 15. dc6 Be6 16. cb5 d3 17. c7 Qd4 18. Qa4 Nd7 19. Be3 Qd6 20. Ba8 Ra8 21. Bf4 Qf8 22. b6 and white's pawns were too much to handle for black.

Here is the final position after 27. f3. Play could have gone 27...Qe5 28. Qd3 Bb7 29. QcC4+ and white wins one of the two black bishops and his advantage will be overwhelming.

Aronian - Anand after 18...Qe7. At first glance, looks like 19. Bd6 would be just great but Anand has taken full account of this position. Anand must have considered 19...Qh4 20. g3 Qh3 21. Nb5 Ne5 22. Be5 Be5 23. Bc4 Rfc8 as good for him. Aronian did not take the bait but played 19. Kh1 instead. Later on, Aronian managed to get his rook trapped on the H file and had to settle for a knight in exchange.

Here is their final position after 41...fg3+. It's very hard now for Aronian to survive. For example, 42. Kg1 Qf7 43. Qh6+ Kg8 44. Qf6 ( to prevent Qf2+ ) Qf6 45. gf6 Rc3 and white cannot put up any significant defense or counter-attack. 0-1.