Russian Superfinal Round 1 - Alexander's Great!

There was a glut of exciting chess in round 1 of the Russian Superfinal in Moscow, and if your name was Alexander then you were in luck.  The trio of Alexanders - Morozevich, Riazantsev and Lastin all won their opening games. 

The day was also a fruitful one for Peter Svidler (pictured) who sealed the only other win of the round against Ernesto Inarkiev.

So it's a bright start at the Moscow Central Chess Club with 4 decisive games out of 6.  It looks like these gentlemen will keep us well entertained until the World Championship between Anand and Kramnik kicks off on 14th October.

The rate of play in the Russian Superfinal is 1 hour 40 mins for 40 moves, 50 mins for the next 20 moves and finally 15 mins to end the game with a 30 second increment per move.  The total prize fund for the championship is 5 million roubles (around 193,000 USD)

The official site (in Russian) is here.