On the second day of blindfold the sole leader of the tournament Levon Aronian made two draws against Peter Leko and Teimour Radjabov and defeated Wang Hao. 5, 5 out of 7 turned to be enough for the first place in the tournament as the closest rival of Levon at that time Hikaru Nakamura failed to win in the last round against Liren Ding and finished the tournament on the second place. As a result, American player won three silver medals in the Mind Games! Peter Leko had good chances for the medals but lost the last game against American Gata Kamsky. Despite the victory over Hungarian player Gata Kamsky finished behind on tie-break points of Azeri player Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

In women section the leader of the previous day Viktorija Cmilyte started the second day with the victory over Humpy Koneru. Viktorija made two draws in the sixth and seventh rounds but unexpectedly it turned to be not enough for the gold medal. Former world champion Hou Yifan showed fantastic result on the second day and won three last games to become the winner of blindfold! Anna Zatonskih made 2,5 out of 3 in the last rounds and grabbed the bronze medal.

 

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After the rapid and blitz tournaments the most difficult part of the Mind Games - Blindfold chess has started. For the second time SportAccord chose this special form of chess play where the players do not see the positions of the pieces or touch them. All participants forced to have the mental model of the positions and use the computers to enter the moves. The organizers tried to provide the most comfortable conditions in order to help players not to lose their concentration during the games. It was forbidden for the spectators to enter the playing venue as well as for the photographers to take photos during the games. Four games were played at the first day of the event but it seemed players got really tired in the fourth round and few games finished quite quickly because of blunders.



Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian and Peter Leko were on the top after the third round. In the fourth round Shakh got better position against Levon Aronian but blundered a rook and resigned immediately. Peter Leko made a draw against Teimour Radjabov. As a result, after the first day of blindfold Levon Aronian, who made the only draw against Hikaru Nakamura and won other three games, is a sole leader with 3, 5 points. Peter Leko and Liren Ding share the second place half a point behind.



In the women section former world champion Hou Yifan took the sole lead after she defeated Humpy Koneru in the third round. Viktorija Cmilyte was just half a point behind. The game between Viktorija Cmilyte and Hou Yifan finished in favor of Lithuanian player, who immediately replaced former world champion on the top of the table. Hou Yifan and Humpy Koneru share the second place half a point behind.

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Two golden medals won by Russians Alexandra Kosteniuk and Sergey Karjakin! On the second day of rapid one of the heroes of the previous day Sergey Karjakin managed to take a sole lead and won the tournament one round before the end. His victory over Bologan became the decisive but he also won the last game against Vassily Ivanchuk to get the gold medal 1,5 points ahead of Hikaru Nakamura, who came second.



For the second time American player won the silver medal in the Mind Games! The real struggle for the third place was between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian and Laurent Fressinet, who shared 3rd place with 9 points before the last round. All of them played quite riskily and unexpectedly everybody lost their games. As a result everything was decided on the tie-break points and the Azeri player Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was more fortunate than the others.



The sole leader of the day one Alexandra Kosteniuk didn’t play stable on the second day of the blitz. “I started well at the first day of the competition but I made my life harder on the second day”, said Kosteniuk after the tournament. In the 14th round Alexandra lost against Bela Khotenashvili and let Anna Muzychuk to become the sole leader one round to go. Nevertheless Kosteniuk outplayed Anna Zatonskikh in the last round.

Slovenian player Anna Muzychuk made a draw against German player Elisabeth Paehtz. As a result, Alexandra Kosteniuk got the gold medal, ahead on tie-break points of Anna Muzychuk. Elisabeth Paehtz shared the third place with Humpy Koneru but the bronze was taken by German player.

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Vassily Ivanchuk lost the first and the last games, made 5,5 point in between and placed fourth in the table.

The current world blitz champion with amazing blitz rating 2923, Alexander Grischuk lost three games in a row at the beginning but managed to “wake up” after unsuccessful start and made 3, 5 out of 5, which in any case makes hard for him to join the fight for medals.



After eight rounds Alexandra Kosteniuk is a sole leader in women section with 7 wins, as she lost only one game against Koneru in the seventh round. It looks like she has already played against the top-rated opponents; however in blitz everything is possible and we can expect a lot of emotions in last rounds. Elizabeth Paehtz, Anna Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru share the second place 1,5 points behind of the leader with 5,5 out of 8. Another surprising result came from former world champion Hou Yifan, who unexpectedly lost three games in a row, same as Alexander Grischuk. Nevertheless she managed to improve her tournament situation and finished the first day with 3,5 out of 8.

Winners of Rapid

Laurent Fressinet and Kateryna Lahno became the winners of the rapid tournament SportAccord Mind Games in Beijing.

In the fifth round of the second day of the rapid French GM Laurent Fressinet defeated the sole leader Hikaru Nakamura to replace his opponent on the top of the table. At the same time Chinese player Liren Ding outplayed Peter Leko and shared the lead with Fressinet. In the sixth round the battle between two leaders finished in a draw but Hikaru Nakamura managed to win against Alexander Grishuk to join Chinese and French players on the top of the table. In the last decisive round Hikaru Nakamura and Laurent Fressinet defeated two Russian GMs Alexander Morozevich and Sergey Karjakin respectively while Liren Ding lost against Alexander Grischuk.


Laurent Fressinet

The tournament was won by French GM Laurent Fressinet on tie-break points over American Hikaru Nakamura, who finished on the second place. Russian player Alexander Grischuk got the bronze medal, ahead on tie-break points of Chinese Liren Ding.

In women section the leader of the first day Hou Yifan made a draw in the fifth round but lost in the sixth round against German player Elisabeth Paehtz. Elisabeth became the sole leader before the last round with 4, 5 points out of 6. Humpy Koneru, Anna Muzychuk, Katerina Lahno, Hou Yifan and Antoaneta Stefanova were just half a point behind. Seven out of 8 games of seventh round were decisive and surprisingly the victories of Black outnumbered White’s success with 6 to 1. In the seventh round Elisabeth Paehtz was paired with Humpy Koneru. German player made a decisive mistake 28.Rf4, lost the game and eventually finished on the fifth place. Antoanetta Stefanova had good chances to win playing white against Katerina Lahno but in the end blundered the long move of Black’s queen 51.Qa1-h8 with following checkmate 52.Qh8-h1 and had to resign immediately. As a result, Ukrainian GM Kateryna Lahno became the winner of the rapid. Hou Yifan got silver medal and Humpy Koneru got bronze. Anna Muzychuk, who shared the first place, left without a medal because of tie-break points.

The first round of the chess rapid tournament SportAccord Mind Games in Beijing got under way on the 14th of December 2012 after FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Director General of SportAccord Vincent Gaillard made first symbolic moves 1.e4 e5 in the game Morozevich-Aronian. After that the players decided to switch to 1.d4 Nf6 and, as everyone was expecting, played a spectacular game, which eventually finished in a draw.



After 4 rounds we have the leaders both in women and open sections. Hikaru Nakamura from the USA started 3 out of 3 and the draw in the fourth round against Levon Aronian put him on the top of the table before the second day of the rapid. French Grand Master Laurent Fressinet got good chances to share the lead with American player if he chose 33…Bd8 in the game against Kamsky. Instead he preferred 33…Rf8 and game finished peacefully after followed three-time repetition. As a result Laurent Fressinet shares the second place together with Ding Liren from China with 3 points. The first day of rapid turned to be distressing for Azeri player Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who unexpectedly lost all four games.



In women section former world champion Hou Yifan from China also won 3 first games and made a draw against Humpy Koneru to get the sole with 3, 5 points out of 4. Kateryna Lahno started the tournament with 2 victories but in the third round was defeated by Hou Yifan. In the fourth round Ukrainian player outplayed Alexandra Kosteniuk and finished the first day just half a point behind the leader. Kateryna Lahno shares the second place together with Humpy Koneru.



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The fifth round will start tommorow at 2 p.m. local time.