  We revisit the corner transfer matrix renormalization group (CTMRG) method of
Nishino and Okunishi for contracting two-dimensional (2D) tensor networks and
demonstrate that its performance can be substantially improved by determining
the tensors using an eigenvalue solver as opposed to the power method used in
CTMRG. We also generalize the variational uniform matrix product state (VUMPS)
ansatz for diagonalizing 1D quantum Hamiltonians to the case of 2D transfer
matrices and discuss similarities with the corner methods. These two new
algorithms will be crucial to improving the performance of variational infinite
projected entangled pair state (PEPS) methods.
