Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian won Hikaru Nakamura (U.S.) in the 2nd round of the 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in Monte-Carlo, Monaco.

After the 2nd round the standings are as follows:

  1. Levon Aronian (Armenia)-3.5 points
  2. Magnus Carlsen (Norway)-3.5
  3. Alexander Grischuk (Russia)-3.5
  4. Viswanathan Anand (India)-2.5
  5. Boris Gelfand (Israel)-2.5
  6. Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan)-2
  7. Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria)-1.5
  8. Hikaru Nakamura (United States)-1
  9. Anish Giri-1
  10. Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine)-1
  11. Sergey Karjakin (Russia)-1
  12. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia)-1

On March 14, Aronian will face Magnus Carlsen in the 3rd round of the tournament.