Cautious Opening At Corus

It's not unusual for caution to be the main theme of the opening round of any chess event, and Corus 2010 was no exception, in the 'A' Group at least.

There were only two decisive games from the seven played, with Alexei Shirov and Loek Van Wely ending the day as joint leaders.

Shirov (pictured) looked to be struggling against Peter Leko with the black pieces, but he somehow managed to turn the game around to make a great start to the event.

Van Wely gave a textbook demonstration of the art of the minority attack in the Queen's Gambit Declined to slowly and mercilessly crush Nigel Short.

The three favourites for the title, Anand, Kramnik and Carlsen, all played black and drew their games.  Only Anand achieved any semblance of an advantage in his game against Karjakin, but it was not enough to take the full point.

In the 'B' Group 15 year-old Anish Giri shocked his more experienced opponent, the #2 ranked Indian player Pental Harikrishna to earn a share of the early lead.  Joining him as winners on the first day were Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Emil Sutovsky.

In Group 'C' the ratings favourite Li Chao opened with a fine win with the black pieces, and other winners included Ray Robson (pictured), Nils Grandelius and Daniele Vocaturo.

So the annual 'Dutch Treat' is underway with a small appetiser, and hopefully more substantial delights to come!

The full results and selected games are below.  All games are available at the official site.