Karjakin's win came at the expense of Arkadij Naiditsch. The top seed advanced his kingside pawns against the Berlin defence, thus cramping Black's minor pieces, so the German responded by sacrificing a piece for interesting counterplay. However it turned out that he didn't have enough compensation as Karjakin had time to organise some favourable tactics. White then broke through in the centre whilst running away with his king.
Jakovenko avoided the exchange of queens and kept up pressure on the light-squares against Jobava's Tartakower defence in the Queen's Gambit. The Russian's bishop was stronger than the Georgian's knight as there was play on both flanks with Black's king in the firing line.
| Dmitry Jakovenko | Russia | 2725 | 1-0 | Baadur Jobava | Georgia | 2715 |
| Sergey Karjakin | Russia | 2739 | 1-0 | Arkadij Naiditsch | Germany | 2686 |
| Alexander Onischuk | USA | 2699 | 0.5-0.5 | Sergei Rublevsky | Russia | 2704 |
| Alexander Motylev | Russia | 2704 | 0.5-0.5 | Ivan Sokolov | Bosnia-Herzegovina | 2654 |
| Nikita Vitiugov | Russia | 2707 | 0.5-0.5 | Victor Bologan | Moldavia | 2668 |
| Alexander Riazantsev | Russia | 2674 | 0.5-0.5 | Emil Sutovsky | Israel | 2661 |
A good start by Karjakin who already has enough rating points in the bag to move into the World's top ten.
Three of the four leaders are Russians, a good start for them.
| Position | Name | Country | Rating | World ranking | Age | Points after 2 rounds |
| 1st-4th | Sergey Karjakin | RUS | 2739 | 14 | 20 | 1.5 |
| 1st-4th | Dmitry Jakovenko | RUS | 2725 | 21 | 26 | 1.5 |
| 1st-4th | Victor Bologan | MDA | 2668 | 64 | 38 | 1.5 |
| 1st-4th | Alexander Riazantsev | RUS | 2674 | 58 | 24 | 1.5 |
| 5th-8th | Nikita Vitiugov | RUS | 2707 | 32 | 23 | 1 |
| 5th-8th | Alexander Motylev | RUS | 2704 | 34 | 30 | 1 |
| 5th-8th | Alexander Onischuk | USA | 2699 | 38 | 34 | 1 |
| 5th-8th | Emil Sutovsky | ISR | 2661 | 75 | 32 | 1 |
| 9th-12th | Baadur Jobava | GEO | 2715 | 26 | 26 | 0.5 |
| 9th-12th | Sergei Rublevsky | RUS | 2704 | 33 | 35 | 0.5 |
| 9th-12th | Arkadij Naiditsch | GER | 2686 | 47 | 24 | 0.5 |
| 9th-12th | Ivan Sokolov | BIH | 2654 | 83 | 41 | 0.5 |
Everyone has got off the mark and four players lead, each having a win and a draw.
You can follow the games live on Live games from 10am (London time).
You may also like to investigate the official tournament site. However it is in Russian!
The third round will start tomorrow morning: 10am (London), 11am (Paris) or 3pm (local time).
