At the end of day 1 of the rapid chess competitions, we have two clear leaders in the Men and Women events.
In the men's event, GM Peter Leko from Hungary has got 3.5 out of 4 after winning against Vachier-Lagrave from France, Le Quang Liem from Vietnam and Sergey Karjakin from Russia in round 4. This last game is quite decisive for today's final standing, and even when making a few blunders in the middle game Karjakin was defending very well, but after almost 100 moves he eventually had to resign. Thanks to his wins in first three rounds, nevertheless, former Rapid World Champion, Karjakin is now in second place. In round 3 he won one of the most interesting games of today:
Wang Yue - Karjakin, round 3
After choosing a sharp line in the opening white had some problems with a misplaced queen:
17... Ng6! 18.Qh5 Bxd4! 19.Rd4 Qc3 - that's the point, white can't protect both rooks.
20.Rc4 Qxa1 21.Qxg4 Kf8 22.Rc2 h5 23.Qd7 h4 24.Bb2 h3+ 25.Kf3
25... Qxb2! 0-1 after 26.Rxb2 Ne5+ black is clearly winning.
Number three in the current crosstable is GM Wang Hao from China who unexpectedly won two games with the black pieces (against Aronian and Nepomniatchi) and made two draws against Ivanchuk and Wang Yue.
Places 4-7 are shared by the top rated in this tournament Alexander Grischuk (RUS), Wang Yue (CHN), Ian Nepomniatchi (RUS) and Gata Kamsky (USA), all on 2,5/4.
In the Women's event, with a 100% score we find GM Valentina Gunina (current Women World Blitz Champion) from Russia who has managed to dispose of two former World Champions, Alexandra Kosteniuk also from Russia and Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria. The latter is also the current Women World Rapid Champion. The field is tremendously strong and tomorrow we will see a power house match between the current Women World Champion and prodigy Hou Yifan.
In Round 4 Gunina defeted Kosteniuk in a interesting way:
Here Black played 31...a5 which is a terrible move, giving white a super chance to continue with 32.Qf6! threatening both Bd4 and Bxf7. The game suddenly finished as black cannot defend here.
Both Hou Yifan and Dzagnidze trail Gunina by a full point and tomorrow’s match may well be decisive. Dzagnidze squeezed a full point out in her fourth game against Elizabeth Paehtz of Germany. Paehtz is a very strong player in Rapid and Blitz events but Dzagnidze kept pressing “Carlsen-like” until Paehtz eventually lost the game.
Places 4-7 are taken by Lagno Kateryna(UKR), Kosintesva Tatiana(RUS), Paehtz Elizabeth(GER) and Kosteniuk Alexandra(RUS).
There are still 3 rounds more so we can expect a lot of emotions on the second day of the rapid tournament.
|
