Fabiano Caruana is the only player to have won all three mini-matches in the Gashimov Memorial, after taking down Rauf Mamedov and Richard Rapport on Day 2. Rapport was beaten in Armageddon after defeating Vishy Anand in the first match of the day, with Vishy also falling to David Navara in a Rook vs. Rook + Bishop ending. The day’s most impressive comeback came from Sergey Karjakin, who started the event with three losses before winning his next four games to take down Navara and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Fabiano Caruana stormed into the sole lead on Day 2 of the Gashimov Memorial | photo: Gashimov Memorial

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Day 2 of the Gashimov Memorial saw Fabiano Caruana and Richard Rapport vying for first place. Fabi began by overpowering Rauf Mamedov with the black pieces and then winning again convincingly with White. Rapport, meanwhile, took advantage of an out-of-sorts Vishy Anand, whose 6…g5?! backfired. 

White went on to win in just 29 moves. That meant Vishy had to win the next game on demand, and his bold piece sacrifice was close to paying off.

70.g6! followed by Bg5 seems to work out for White, whose passed pawns on both sides of the board prove too hard to handle. Instead after 70.Bf6?! Kb7 71.Bc2 Bg8 72.g6?! Black had things under control, and it was Rapport who had any winning chances when he took a draw that confirmed victory in the mini-match.

Richard Rapport held off Vishy Anand in the second game of their match | photo: Gashimov Memorial

Caruana and Rapport then clashed in a spectacular Round 3 clash, with Fabiano first winning a brilliant game with the white pieces.

Richard hit back, however, to win in just as impressive style.

In the final position 26…cxd6 27.Qh6+ is mate-in-4.

That meant Armageddon, when Rapport once again had White. The same Petroff was played, but instead of 4…d5 Fabiano went for the slower 4…Be7, and when he finally played 19…d5! he was taking over. 20.fxe5 Rxe5 21.Bf4 looked at a glance to be good for White…

…but Caruana’s 21…Bd6!, ready to sacrifice the exchange, saw Black dominate the remainder of the game. Fabi only needed a draw, but went on to win and take the sole lead in the tournament.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had been leading with Caruana and Rapport after Day 1, but surprisingly, despite taking the lead, he only managed to beat his young compatriot Vugar Asadli in Armageddon, before he was put to the sword by a resurgent Sergey Karjakin.

The real Sergey Karjakin was back on Day 2 of the Gashimov Memorial | photo: Gashimov Memorial

Karjakin’s loss to David Navara in the first game of the day had been his 3rd loss in a row, but then he hit back to win all his remaining games. First there was an impressive endgame win in the second rapid game, then he pounced on the Navara’s blunder 35.Bh5? (35.Ra6! and White is winning) in the Armageddon.

35…Rfxf2+! left no choice but to take the rook with 36.Nxf2, leaving the d6-rook undefended, so that 36…Kxd6 followed.

Karjakin didn’t look back as he then took advantage of Mamedyarov’s 25…Bxh3? (25…Qd8! was the only, but sufficient, move to hold). 

Black would have been better if not for 26.Bg7+!, which forces checkmate. 26…Kh7 27.Qh6# is an instant mate, while 26…Rxg7 runs into 27.Qh6+! and mate on g7 or 27…Rh7 28.Qf8#

Mamedyarov then had to win on demand with the white pieces and went for his trademark kingside pawn storm, but it backfired and led to a 34-move loss. Only Ian Nepomniachtchi is missing in Baku out of Magnus Carlsen’s World Championship challengers!

The other major story of the day was Vishy Anand’s struggles continuing. After the 15th World Champion lost to Richard Rapport he then fell to David Navara, in the most painful manner possible. Rook vs. Rook + Bishop is a theoretically drawn endgame, but it’s notoriously difficult to defend in practice, and just seven moves short of a draw by the 50-move rule, Vishy had no choice but to resign.

David went on to force a draw by perpetual check in the second game, to leave Vishy having lost all three mini-matches so far, though there are still four to go in rapid chess.

David Navara went on to win this game in 119 moves | photo: Gashimov Memorial

The standings look as follows — with 3 points for a win in rapid, while the points are split 2:1 if Armageddon is required. 

The Gashimov Memorial action continues from 13:00 CET here on chess24!

See also:

• Official website
• All the Gashimov Memorial games with computer analysis on chess24
• Gashimov Memorial 1: Anand stumbles as Gashimov Memorial begins