Wang and Nepomniachtchi victorious in Round 1
Hey everyone! The first round was definitely more interesting than I thought it would be. Wang Hao and Ian Nepomniachtchi seized wins against Ding Liren and Anish Giri. Alekseenko managed to hold a draw against Grischuk with a pawn sacrifice, while Anish Giri wasn't able to hold a rook vs queen endgame, where he didn't have the correct fortress. MVL started with a draw with the white pieces against top seed, Fabiano Caruana. Let's start with the games!
Today was an exciting day in all. We got to see some endgame technique by Nepo and Wang Hao, and some sacrifices as well. Ding, one of the favorites, starts with 0/1. We'll see if he's able to bounce back after today's tough loss. Caruana is kind of also a victor because Ding lost his game, and Grischuk drew against the lowest seeds, and those are his main competitors. Here are the current standings after round 1:
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Pts | SB |
| 1-2 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2774 | 3563 | 1 | 1.0/1 | 0 | ||||||||
| 1-2 | Wang Hao | 2762 | 3605 | 1 | 1.0/1 | 0 | ||||||||
| 3-6 | Fabiano Caruana | 2842 | 2767 | ½ | 0.5/1 | 0.25 | ||||||||
| 3-6 | Alexander Grischuk | 2777 | 2698 | ½ | 0.5/1 | 0.25 | ||||||||
| 3-6 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2767 | 2842 | ½ | 0.5/1 | 0.25 | ||||||||
| 3-6 | Kirill Alekseenko | 2698 | 2777 | ½ | 0.5/1 | 0.25 | ||||||||
| 7-8 | Ding Liren | 2805 | 1962 | 0 | 0.0/1 | 0 | ||||||||
| 7-8 | Anish Giri | 2763 | 1974 | 0 | 0.0/1 | 0 |
Anand was commentating today for chess.com. It was very educational, and I would like to share that with you guys. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE VIDEO
I have a poll that you can fill out before tomorrow. It has some fun questions so it would be nice if you guys could do it. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE POLL
See you guys tomorrow! Have a good day!
