For our American members, please note that you have to "spring forward" with daylight savings tonight, meaning round two will start at 10:00am USA/Eastern for you.

1) Tal would go out and get drunk;

2) Hou Yifan would go run five miles;

3) Grischuk would go online and destroy people in online poker;

4) kramnik would watch some Premier League football while nursing a glass of cognac;

5) Magnus would binge drink orange juice and get into the cartoon DVDs he brought with him;

It looks to me that these players are determined to play fighting chess I had assumed the first round would have a higher percent of draws.

SK played inaccurately on moves 49 and 50, giving M a winning advantage.

M then blundered badly with 53 ... Qxe5+? (versus 53 ... b2!), throwing away his advantage completely and converting the position back to a probable draw.

click for larger view

50....g5 really impressed me. I don't usually think of opening up my own kingside when I'm trying to win a queen ending!

After 51.hxg5 hxg5 52.fxg5 Qe2+ 53.Kg3, 53....b2 is indeed stronger.

g5 was counterintuitive because it opened up white's own kingside and undoubled black's pawn but not all of us missed it:

However according to Lasker one mistake is not enough to lose the game if a player is careful to not make a second mistake.

If 12 Bxd4 is White's first mistake the exchange 29 Rxb5? may be White's second mistake, as it enters a queen and pawn ending in which Black has a passed pawn, and in a queen and pawn ending a passed pawn acquires greatly increased value and importance.

This suggests that 29 Rxb5 increases greatly the value of Black's passed pawn.