Ray rules!

Traps, traps and more traps. For most of an hour, Ray Robson and Benjamin Bok of the Netherlands are working through what else they might have played in their game and they just keep finding nasty ways Ray could have won that game. As it was, Ray cruised to victory to and a point and a half lead in the Grandmaster Group C with a score of 5.5/6. Before I could interview him, Vladimir Kramnik entered the room and all attention turned to the ex-Champion. I looked back and Ray was gone like Clark Kent. Maybe I'll catch him tomorrow.

Equally impressive is the young leader of Group B, the home favorite Anish Giri. Not only is he unbeaten with a 5.0/6 score but the kid is eloquent! For the last two rounds he has gladly provided analysis of his game for the media (which can be seen at http://www.chessvibes.com/). Here, he is a big time chess player and movie star!

My starting with the C and B groups is partly to raise the awareness of these up and coming teen monsters ... and partly because the top section was just not very exciting today. There were some early draws including Nigel Short's quite easy defusing of the bomb named Alexi Shirov. The only other noteworthy event was Vladimir Kramnik's win over Loek van Wely which brings VK into a tie for second with Nakamura, Carlsen and Ivanchuk.

I did get some gold today, though! For one, I sat next to Kramik (OMG!!!) for 20 minutes as he and van Wely analyzed their game. Better yet, I tape recorded quite a lot of their commentary. Plus I recorded on video an interview I had with Nigel Short. I just don't know if/how to get any of that onto this site. I will work on that upon my return.

It was pretty amazing to hear Kramnik say from very early on in his game that he had everything completely under control and how he was going to play it out and win. So matter of fact that there was nothing his opponent could do about it. Yet his opponent was none other than van Wely, who every now and then mumbled a subtly incredulous "oh yeah?" But try as he might, van Wely was stuck. With impressive wins in the last two rounds, Kramnik is making his move in this tournament.

More tomorrow!