Levon Aronian found a trick World Champion Magnus Carlsen described as “really awesome” to beat Vidit, then bamboozled Leinier Dominguez in an ending a pawn down, to score the only 2/2 of the day. That enabled Europe to catch the USA in 2nd place after Day 2 of the FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup. China nevertheless continue to lead, now by two points, despite dropping their first match point of the tournament after being held to a draw by Russia.
We’ve been lucky for our commentary that not all the world’s best players are taking part in the tournament! World Champion Magnus Carlsen felt the organisers hadn’t put much effort into recruiting him but also didn’t feel too attracted to the system:
I think for me it would have felt more important to play if I had been, let's say, American or Chinese or even Russian. Representing your country in such a tournament is huge, but representing Europe - I don't feel so strongly about Europe.
Magnus also turned interviewer with another of the commentators, 8-time Russian Champion Peter Svidler:
