Round 2 games of Alekhine Memorial were played on April, 22 in Paris. Three games out of five finished in a draw, like in Round 1. Despite the fact that it was a week-day the chess pavilion in the Tuileries Garden (the Louvre Museum) was again full of spectators.

Fressinet – Gelfand and Vitiugov – Anand games finished earlier than others. Fressinet kept a slight pressure on his opponent after the opening was over, however the grandmaster from Israel found a way to neutralize the threat. World champion Viswanathan Anand, who lost his game in Round 1, found himself in an unpleasant position again today, but Nikita Vitiugov from Russia wasn’t able to get all the chances he could out of his position.

The champion of France, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave made his fans very happy today as he scored a good victory against Ding Liren from China. After this success Maxime is currently second with 1.5 points out of 2.

Michael Adams is a tournament leader at the moment. Today he overplayed World Cup winner Peter Svidler in his favorite style and got another point with white.

The game between two top rated players Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik was thrilling. World’s second player did better in the opening and didn’t let his opponent equalize the position in the middle game. Soon the game turned into a winning endgame for white, which Aronian played very precisely. After round 2 both rating favorites have 1 point out of 2 and still need a lot to reach the leader.

Results after round 2: 1. Adams – 2 points; 2. Vachier-Lagrave – 1,5 points; 3-7. Aronian, Kramnik, Ding Liren, Fressinet, Gelfand – 1 point; 8-10. Svidler, Vitiugov, Anand – 0,5 point.

Round 3 pairings: Ding Liren – L. Fressinet, V. Kramnik – M. Vachier-Lagrave, V. Anand — L. Aronian, P. Svidler — N. Vitiugov, B. Gelfand — M. Adams 

Contact information for journalists:
Alekhine Memorial press officer
Mark Gluhovsky
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Official tournament web page – www.alekhine-memorial.com