FIDE WORLD Rapid & Blitz CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP - Day 1

GM Ronen Har-Zvi reviews the World Rapid Championship

You can find the whole story in the article written for the ICC by GM Ronen Har-Zvi.

First round of 13.

Magnus Carlsen is white against Gagunashvili. The game is drawn; it looks impossible to convert a position like that. But Carlsen is the king of squeezing orange juice out of a rock. Magnus can convert any position, and we know that. And that is what happened, again. Carlsen kept playing until his opponent blundered in time trouble. Can you see the easy move after 103...Ka3?

Ian Blunder

Yes, indeed. First round first win, in 104 moves. Magnus drew the second-round game that finished with the bare kings on the board. Then he won three games in a row, beating Dreev, Harsha, and the great Shirov. After the last round of the day, Carlsen said:

"I am not playing that well, but I rarely have a good feeling on day 1. My score is the best I've had on day 1, so it's really, really good. I hope I raise my level in the next few days."
--Magnus Carlsen

Not bad for someone who is 4.5/5!

Local hero GM Duda and the strong Georgian Jobava started with a bang, winning four games in a row to draw the game played against each other. Carlsen, Duda, and Jobava lead the pack with 4.5/5, followed by Nepomniachtchi, Abdusattorov, Grischuk, Gareyev, Anton, Niemann, Gelfand, Giri, Korobov, Firouzja, Cheparinov, Fedoseev, Petrosian with 4.0/5. Nakamura follows with 3.5 with Caruana, Shirov, Rapport, Mamedyarov, and other 20 GMs. A special mention for our friend Timur Gareyev, who is playing great chess!

			Surname, Name	Rating	Pts	Bch1	Bch
1.		GM	Duda, Jan-Krzysztof	2801 +6	4.5	19.5	22.0
2.		GM	Carlsen, Magnus	2842 -6	4.5	19.0	21.0
3.		GM	Jobava, Baadur	2679 +14	4.5	18.5	21.0
4.		GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	2798 -5	4.0	21.5	24.5
5.		GM	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	2593 +23	4.0	21.0	23.0
6.		GM	Grischuk, Alexander	2763 -9	4.0	20.5	23.5
7.		GM	Gareyev, Timur	2578 +22	4.0	20.5	22.0
8.		GM	Anton Guijarro, David	2627 -6	4.0	20.0	22.5
9.		GM	Niemann, Hans M	2327 +62	4.0	19.5	23.0
10.		GM	Gelfand, Boris	2648 +3	4.0	19.5	20.5
11.	1	GM	Korobov, Anton	2689 -2	4.0	18.5	21.5
12.	1	GM	Giri, Anish	2767 -5	4.0	18.5	21.0
13.		GM	Firouzja, Alireza	2656 -3	4.0	18.0	20.0
14.		GM	Fedoseev, Vladimir	2692 -4	4.0	17.5	19.5
14.		GM	Cheparinov, Ivan	2621 +10	4.0	17.5	19.5
16.		GM	Petrosian, Tigran L.	2621 +3	4.0	16.5	19.0
17.		GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2484 +42	3.5	19.5	22.0
18.		GM	Shirov, Alexei	2702 -8	3.5	19.5	21.5
19.		GM	Rapport, Richard	2750 -22	3.5	19.0	21.5
20.		GM	Caruana, Fabiano	2770 -20	3.5	19.0	21.0
21.		GM	Nakamura, Hikaru	2836 -28	3.5	18.5	21.0
21.		GM	Van Foreest, Jorden	2563 +27	3.5	18.5	21.0
23.	1	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2629 +5	3.5	18.5	20.0
24.	1	GM	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	2773 -23	3.5	18.0	20.5
24.	1	GM	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	2727 -14	3.5	18.0	20.5