The rating favorite Sergey Karjakin defeated the Philippine Wesley So on tie-break. The players came to the press-conference together and shared their views on the match.

Karjakin: The match was difficult. We made two draws in classical chess; I had a slight advantage in the first game, and my opponent could play for a win in the final position of the second game. The rapid games turned out better for me. I equalized easily in the first game as Black, and in the second game Wesley employed the line recently used by Yury Drozdovsky against my second Alexander Motylev. Maybe he wanted to add some psychological pressure, but I already knew where to move my pieces and had some new ideas. The opponent didn't handle the position right, and I won the game.

So: I agree with my opponent. I knew the game Motylev-Drozdovsky and hoped Sergey will follow it, but he didn't.

Karjakin: Oh, it turns out Wesley only saw their classical game! In the rapid game Sasha played the correct move, like I did today.

So: Perhaps I should have selected another line...

— Sergey, you'll play against Judit Polgar in the next round. Are you concerned? — Of course. Judit plays chess with men for her whole life and has a victory against Garry Kasparov. She is a very strong player, and I will treat her with respect.