Anish Giri drew all 5 games on Day 2 of the Skilling Open, but that was enough to retain the sole lead after Sergey Karjakin took down Magnus Carlsen in the final round of the day. Of the 8 highest classically rated players only Levon Aronian would currently miss out on the knockout stage, with his replacement a certain Hikaru Nakamura. Hikaru fell to a tactical blow from Liem Quang Le in the first game of the day but beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in Round 10.
Another frenetic day of five rounds of 15+10 rapid chess left the standings as follows before the final five rounds of the preliminary stage on Tuesday.
The Top 8 players after the preliminary stage go forward to a knockout stage, where each match is held over two days.
Text and photo: chess24.com
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