With White I drew, I draw and I will draw!

The second game of the final match between the Russians Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk ended in a draw. The participants commented on the flow of the game at the press conference.

— Peter, please tell us about the game development?

Svidler: As I said yesterday, most of my White games are drawn. I decided not to deviate from the recipe that is working for success. Seriously speaking, I did not really want it when I made a move 6.a4, but we got a whittled position rather fast. It would have been nice if the Knight f3 was on e3, but it was very far from necessary squares in the final position. After my move 12.Qe2 that might be considered as a novelty, we got a practically forced position where we agreed for a draw. Black are doubling on «с» line, White on the «d» one and neither one of them really move. In general, it was rather logical that the game at that moment was drawn, because there is not really any serious plan. There is a possibility that White move Knight e1-d3 and Black move their Knight on c5; as a result knights are exchanged and after this there is no material left to play with. Therefore, the draw is very logical in the final position. It is clear that one could have played in a more ambitious way but once again — this is not the first White game in this tournament where I do not manage anything from the opening.

— Alexander, what is your point of view in respect of this game?

Grischuk: While Petya was speaking I have calculated: at the 6^th move White have 10 main lines and the move 6.a4, the firmest and the most boring one, is among them. Indeed, the moves 15.b3 and16.Rd1 are very precise ones; It seemed to me that my position was better, but after this I understood that Black did not have any chances to win. Of course, if the play is precise — Black have less chances to lose.

— Alexander, taking into account the match situation, do you consider today’s result as a «digestible» one?

Grischuk: Yes, it is okay, there are more games ahead. Today Peter proved once again that he is a man of his word. Like Alexander Kerzhakov who used to say: «I kicked, I am kicking and I will keep kicking!», Peter is saying: «With White I drew, I draw and I will draw!»

— Peter, do you have a feeling that tomorrow’s game will be a decisive one?

Svidler: All games are important. I do understand that you don’t have such an impression from today’s one, but all of them are important. It is obvious that tomorrow’s game will be one of them, but in any case we still have two ahead of us.

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