In the opening Carlsen chose to play 5.d3, leading to a closed manoeuvring game, rather than test Anand in the main lines of the solid Berlin Defence. After the opening of the centre Anand's pieces seemed slightly more active, but nothing dramatic until Carlsen made a speculative piece sacrifice. Anand then found a series of neat defensive ideas that didn't allow the Norwegian to get his material back.
In a Slav, Shirov opted to steer the game into a position that was more reminiscent of the Queen's Gambit Accepted where White had an isolated queen's pawn and Black a blockade on d5. A tactical sequence, initiated by Shirov who made an attempted 'freeing pawn sacrifice', led to him shedding the exchange after which, for Kramnik of all people, it was a 'question of technique'.
Here is a summary of the second round:
| Name | Rating | Country | Result | Name | Rating | Country | Opening | Moves |
| Magnus Carlsen | 2826 | NOR | 0-1 | Viswanathan Anand | 2800 | IND | Spanish Berlin | 45 |
| Vladimir Kramnik | 2780 | RUS | 1-0 | Alexei Shirov | 2749 | ESP | Slav Defence | 41 |
In tomorrow's third round (on Monday the 11th) the pairings will be as follows:
| Name | Rating | Country | Result | Name | Rating | Country | Opening | Moves |
| Alexei Shirov | 2749 | ESP | - | Magnus Carlsen | 2826 | NOR | ||
| Viswanathan Anand | 2800 | IND | - | Vladimir Kramnik | 2780 | RUS |
Two wins with White puts Kramnik in the lead, but he will have to play with four Blacks in the remaining six rounds.
| Standing | Player (World ranking) | Rating | Age | Country | 1W | 1B | 2W | 2B | 3W | 3B | 4W | 4B | Score (Bilbao) | Score (Standard) |
| 1 | Vladimir Kramnik (5) | 2780 | 35 | RUS | X | X | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | 6 | 2 |
| 2 | Viswanathan Anand (3) | 2800 | 40 | IND | - | - | X | X | - | = | - | 1 | 4 | 1.5 |
| 3 | Alexei Shirov (12) | 2749 | 38 | ESP | - | 0 | = | - | X | X | - | - | 1 | 0.5 |
| 4 | Magnus Carlsen (1) | 2826 | 19 | NOR | - | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | X | X | 0 | 0 |
The way things are going, there is every prospect of a remarkable change at the top of the world rankings when the new ratings come out on the 1st of November.
For more information go to the Official site
There will be a rest day on Tuesday the 12th, but otherwise you will be able to watch the games live each day from the following times:
4.30 pm (Bilbao, Paris)
3.30 pm (London)
6.30 pm (Moscow)
11.30 am (New York)
8.30 am (Los Angeles)
