It wasn’t a safe day to be a super GM, but Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played a convincing game. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Written by Mike Klein | Read the full report at  https://www.chess.com/news/view/aronian-bluffs-while-vidit-sacrifices-queen-again-in-isle-of-man-round-2

It’s been several years since the Chess.com Isle of Man International  was a combination chess and poker event, but  GM Levon Aronian  showed in today’s round two that there’s still room for bluffing. On top board, he played a calculated risk that worked to move him to 2.0/2, where he was joined one board lower by a birthday boy. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave gave himself the best 28th birthday gift—a winning rook ending.

Boards 3-5 weren’t so lucky. Whereas yesterday GM Anish Giri  led the list of elite players ceding a draw, today three more household names followed suit. GMs Viswanathan Anand, Alexander Grischuk, and  Sergey Karjakin all yielded half-points on those next three boards, unable to keep pace with their usual colleagues.