Grischuk played the rare 5 Qc2 in the Chebanenko Slav and after Morozevich’s timid 5…g6 (5…dc4 is the only way) 6 e4 white got a better game. Grischuk continued with powerful play and it felt as if he destroyed Morozevich. Fantastic performance by the currently number 3 player in the world!

However incredible it may seem, for me the game of the day was Leko-Kramnik. Leko introduced an interesting sacrifice in the well-known lines of the QGD with Bf4. An enterprising play by Leko, who unfortunately had to settle for a draw in view of Kramnik’s almost perfect defence. (If you cannot see the moves and comments, please click on the question mark in the bottom left corner of the board).

Inarkiev scored his first half a point against Gelfand by playing the solid Fianchetto against the Grunfeld. It’s obvious that he came to this tournament with the desire to be solid and that’s much easier done when playing white. Tough luck he started with two blacks and didn’t survive the openings in those games, let’s see how he continues after the rest day when he’s black again against Morozevich.

Aronian tried to squeeze water from stone in yet another Fianchetto Grunfeld against Ding Liren. He failed.

Tomorrow’s a rest day, probably scheduled appropriately so that the players can watch the opening ceremony of the Carlsen-Anand match.