Wei Yi Leads, Mishra Shines: Chessable Masters, Day 1
GM Wei Yi took an early lead at the 2022 Meltwater Champion's Chess Tour's Chessable Masters on Thursday, scoring a draw and three wins. GM Abhimanyu Mishra, the youngest grandmaster in the world, won twice—like world champion Magnus Carlsen.
It's good to see Wei back in action. The 22-year-old GM from Yancheng, still the youngest player to ever break 2700 (he did so at 15!), had a fairly inactive period. In April he was involved in one of the tournaments that GM Ding Liren played to get enough rated games for the Candidates, but before that, Wei hadn't played since September.
On the first day of the Chessable Masters, Wei drew with GM Praggnanandhaa R. and defeated GMs Pentala Harikrishna, Gawain Jones, and GM David Anton.
The game Wei-Anton was a clash among two of the three leaders at that point, Ding being the third. Initially, the game was going well for the Spanish player who got side-tracked in the complications:
Mishra made his debut in the 2021 Tour in the Chessable Masters, just a few weeks after becoming the youngest GM in history. It's the same tournament where he's invited once again, and his first day wasn't bad at all ("a very crazy day," as he said himself).
After losses to Anton and Ding, Mishra bounced back strongly and won against both GM Eric Hansen and GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov—the strongest player he has beaten so far. The 13-year-old was "extremely happy" with this win, describing it as follows:
"I was always very close to getting mated, but somehow I wasn't getting mated with like eight seconds on the clock. It was always very difficult to make a move."
Carlsen, who won two of the three tour events so far, started slowly with two draws vs. his compatriot GM Aryan Tari and with Mamedyarov before beating GMs Nils Grandelius and Jorden van Foreest. The win against Grandelius was convincing but could have been even more convincing if the world champion hadn't missed a tactic right after the opening.
"The score is good and to end on a high note with two wins is nice," said Carlsen. "I think I didn't play so well, but as long as I win it's fine."
These Meltwater events often see players (including Carlsen!) experimenting with openings that you're less likely to see in classical OTB tournaments. One of them is Van Foreest, who has been trying quite a few romantic options after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6. In his game with Hansen, he tried the Evans Gambit and got a good position but eventually blundered:
Chessable Masters Day 1 Standings
| # | Fed | Player | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Pts |
| 1 | Wei,Yi | 2729 | 3013 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 10 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Ding,Liren | 2753 | 2860 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Giri,Anish | 2730 | 2850 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Carlsen,Magnus | 2824 | 2888 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | Anton Guijarro,David | 2721 | 2756 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Shankland,Sam | 2709 | 2761 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | |||||||||||||
| 7 | Vidit,Santosh Gujrathi | 2711 | 2688 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||||
| 8 | Praggnanandhaa R | 2706 | 2693 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | |||||||||||||
| 9 | Harikrishna,Pentala | 2689 | 2706 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | |||||||||||||
| 10 | Mishra,Abhimanyu | 2524 | 2712 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | |||||||||||||
| 11 | Grandelius,Nils | 2656 | 2640 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||
| 12 | Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar | 2745 | 2590 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||
| 13 | Hansen,Eric | 2630 | 2590 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |||||||||||||
| 14 | Tari,Aryan | 2654 | 2528 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 15 | Jones,Gawain C B | 2587 | 2382 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| 16 | Van Foreest,Jorden | 2736 | 2400 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
All Games Day 1
The 2022 Champions Chess Tour's fourth event, the Chessable Masters, runs May 19-26, 2022 on chess24. The preliminaries are a 16-player round-robin from which the top eight qualify for the knockout stage. The time control is 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment; the scoring system is 3 points for a win, one for a draw, and zero for a loss. The prize fund is $150,000.
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