Aerosvit Round 1
Carlsen beats Ivanchuk as favourites clash
The Foros Aerosvit 2008 tournament opened with a bang as the favourites met head on in round 1. The game lived up to expectations as Ivanchuk played the King's Indian and sacrificed the exchange for an attack. He looked in good shape, but Magnus stayed calm and played some accurate defensive moves to neutralise Chucky's ideas and deservedly find his way to a winning ending.
There was one other decisive game in round 1 as Alexei Shirov overcame the Dutchman Van Wely with the Grunfeld Defense.
The results in full:
| Carlsen, Magnus | - Ivanchuk, Vassily | 1-0 | 46 | E97 | King's Indian Classical |
| Onischuk, Alexander | - Jakovenko, Dmitry | ½-½ | 31 | D47 | Queens Gambit Meran |
| Eljanov, Pavel | - Svidler, Peter | ½-½ | 40 | A15 | English counter King's Fianchetto |
| Alekseev, Evgeny | - Karjakin, Sergey | ½-½ | 46 | B91 | Sicilian Najdorf with 6.g3 |
| Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | - Volokitin, Andrei | ½-½ | 39 | C42 | Petroff's Defence |
| Van Wely, Loek | - Shirov, Alexei | 0-1 | 41 | D86 | Gruenfeld Simagin |
