Once again Larry Christiansen has an exciting game, this time against Onischuk with a very difficult position as white already on move 12.
Shabalov sacks an exchange against Shankland's Catalan similar to Topalov's sac in the last World Championship. Shabalov got a pawn and more space for the exchange. It does not look to me that Shabalov got as much as Topalov after Shankland's 15. Nb1 (because Ne4 does not work to ...Nxe4 and ...c3) Update: I was wrong, Shabalov got more.
One of the nice things about covering a chess tournament, unlike a sporting event, the announcers do not have to try to force excitement into a game where there is none. There are always some other games to look at even if one is a boring draw or a crush (possibly Krush in this tournament).
The kids Robson and Naroditsky are playing a Najdorf, always exciting.
Kamsky played something like a Polar Bear (reverse Leningrad Dutch) against Stripunksy. White has lots of weak light squares if Black can exploit them. Later, Kamsky has a horrible dark square bishop, basically just a big pawn.
Akobian pulled out a weird 4-pawns attack on Shulman's King's Indian. More preparation for me, but from the look of the game Akobian has, I would look forward to someone trying this against me.
Quite a few King's Indians this round.
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