Twelve chiral ligands 718 were tested in the new kinetically controlled variation of zirconium alkoxide catalysed Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction of 2'-chloroacetophenone (2) using rac-4 as the reducing alcohol (Scheme 3). The tetraaryl-1,3-dioxolanes 11 (ca. 30% enantiomeric excess, ee) and the triphenylethanediol 14 (62% ee, 99% yield) gave the best results. A relatively low dependence on the amount of the catalyst (aluminum alkoxide gave no asymmetric induction) and the ligand excess was observed compared with a very high dependence on incubation time of Zr(O t Bu) 4 with the chiral ligand 14 and also on the reaction temperature.