Magnus Carlsen

In round 2 yesterday Magnus played black against Naiditsch. Naiditsch chose the exchange variation in Spanish as in Sarajevo last year. It is not an opening in which black easily gets the initiative.
Magnus thought he defended well and when Naiditsch made at least one imprecise move (Nc1) Magnus could play Bb7 and get pressure along the diagonal. Just before the time control they repeated moves and Magnus was quite happy to draw as he had not seen the promising continuation Qa2 exploiting white's weaknesses.
Apart from taking the repetition the game very much had the development Magnus could have hoped for.

Kramnik and Alekseev won against Gelfand and Mamedyarov to take the lead with 1.5/2.
Against Leko's marshall Anand had to concede a draw.

Magnus watching his classmate Jon L.Hammer beat IM M.Zaitsev on table 1 in the Open.
 

After a good tennis training session with a couple of ICC guys, Magnus participated in the traditional blitz in the City hall where the Grandmasters get 2 minutes and the opponents 5. (Magnus duly won all 10 games.)

Tomorrow Magnus is white against co-leader Alekseev, and I think this will be an exciting game! 

Henrik Carlsen
Dortumund, June 25th