FTX Crypto Cup: Aronian, Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa, Duda Start With Wins

GMs Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa R., and Jan-Krzysztof Duda started with wins in a first round full of fighting chess at the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami. The tournament is the sixth event in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and its second "major."

For this FTX Crypto Cup, the eight players are all playing from the Eden Roc Miami Beach Hotel in Florida with their laptops placed together in one room—or rather, a chess-themed studio designed for what the royal game seems to be in these events: an esport.

In each of the seven rounds, a match of four rapid games is played and if needed, blitz and armageddon follow. In each match, $7,500 is at stake. Players get three points for a straight-out victory in the rapid, or two points vs. one in case of a tiebreak.

Carlsen-Giri 3-1

The world champion immediately had one of the tough matchups on paper as he was paired with Dutch GM Anish Giri. After two draws, it was Carlsen who struck in game three using the French Defense as Black. Giri, who employed the Advance Variation (which is also seeing some kind of a revival!), should not have given up his light-squared bishop according to Carlsen, who called that a "serious misjudgment."

After winning game four as well, Carlsen said: "It was a lot of fun. We played really, really fighting games. Finally, I managed to break him in the third."

Praggnanandhaa-Firouzja 2.5-1.5

Coming straight from the Olympiad where he won bronze with the India 2 team, Praggnanandhaa had a good start in Miami. "I am very happy to win this match against Alireza because especially in rapid and blitz, he is very strong," he said after the first day of play.

Pragg won both of his white games and held one black game to a draw. Game three was critical as Firouzja was close to a draw:

Aronian-Le 2.5-1.5

Aronian summarized his match with GM Le Quang Liem as "catenaccio." According to the American-Armenian grandmaster, his first game was good, his second game "terrible," and in the remaining two he was "just trying to defend." Explaining the term catenaccio, he referred to the old Italian style of play in football, adding: "You have Paolo Maldini in the center, and everything is going to be good!"

Here's that first game:

Duda-Niemann 3-0

This match had an unfortunate start, especially for GM Hans Niemann, whose laptop wasn't plugged in and ran out of power after 10 minutes of play in the first game. The game was resumed, but Niemann was apparently so upset that he couldn't get himself together and lost three games straight.

"I tried to be fair and not calculate too much," said Duda—the winner of the first major, the Oslo Esports Cup—about the short period when everything had to be set up again. "But it was too interesting, too tempting to analyze it!" 

Below is the second game, which was visually nice with the many white pawns marching forward. White got a decisive advantage with a relatively simple tactic that both GMs didn't spot immediately:

All games round 1

FTX Crypto Cup | Round 1 Standings

The FTX Crypto Cup, the sixth event in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, takes place August 15-21, 2022 on chess24. The format is a round-robin among eight players, who play a match of four rapid games (15+10) in each round. The winner earns $7,500 and three points. In the case of a tie, a two-game blitz tiebreak is played (5+3), followed by an armageddon game (5 vs. 4). In that case, the winner earns $5,000 and two points; the loser, $2,500 and one point. The prize fund is $210,000 plus an additional $100,000 tied to the price of Bitcoin.