Carlsen, MVL Chasing Leaders After World Rapid Chess Championship Day 1

Five players are in the lead with 4.5/5 after the first day of the world rapid championship in Moscow, but favorites such as Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave or Hikaru Nakamura are not among them. In the women's section the current leaders are also lesser-known players.

The world rapid and blitz championships took off on Thursday in the Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moscow. This giant sports complex was originally built in the 1950s and was used for both the 1980 Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Traditionally, FIDE is holding this double event during the somewhat impractical last week of December, when there will always be players who have to skip because of the Christmas holidays. Also traditionally, the tournament was confirmed rather late so that some missing top players (e.g. Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Vishy Anand or Wesley So) might have made other plans.

But it's there, and once again bearing the official name "2019 King Salman World Rapid & Blitz Championships" as the sponsorship deal with Saudi Arabia is ongoing. That started in 2017, an edition held in Riyadh that led to a scandal when players from certain countries were not getting visas and some players (e.g. Nakamura) declined to participate.

Although the Saudis' financial support didn't stop, the tournament was moved to St. Petersburg last year, and this time the Russian capital is hosting. The venue in Moscow had some early-tournament heating issues today:

I apologize to the participants of the World Rapid Championships in Moscow for an inconvenience caused by equipment failure leading to low temperatures in the playing hall. We are taking measures to resolve a problem swiftly for the best of players.

— Arkady Dvorkovich (@advorkovich) December 26, 2019

Just before Christmas, the tournament received widespread news coverage because of the drama surrounding the participant Alireza Firouzja, a story covered here on Chess.com. The short version is that the Iranian Chess Federation withheld its players from participating in Moscow after two grandmasters had played against an Israeli player in a somewhat informal blitz tournament last week. The Iranian government in general doesn't allow its athletes to compete against Israelis in any sport.

Firouzja, who lives in France, decided to ignore the ban and travel to Moscow anyway. It was suggested that he might not represent his country anymore in the near future, and is participating in Moscow under the FIDE flag. So far, he hasn't responded to Chess.com's request for comments.

Backstory to 16yo GM Firouza's decision to no longer play for Iran lies in an IOC warning in Oct. to the Iranian NOC of ban if they again refuse to play Israelis. The Iranian gov't then told the chess fed not to enter any events with Israelis, a disaster for Firouza's ambitions.

— Ian Rogers (@GMIanRogers) December 26, 2019

All this pre-tournament turmoil didn't seem to affect Firouzja much, as the 16-year-old player had an excellent start of 3.5/4 before he was stopped by Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the last round of the day.

Firouzja won a nice game against Anton Korobov, who came straight to Moscow from Barcelona after winning the Sunway Sitges tournament. With a rapid rating of 2818, the Ukrainian is the fourth seed behind Carlsen, MVL and Nakamura.

In his game with Duda, Firouzja was not aware of all the details in the Austrian Attack of the Pirc, and out of the opening he was in trouble. The Polish GM found a clean finish by liquidating to a pawn endgame:

So what about those favorites? Well, both Carlsen and Vachier-Lagrave dropped a point (two draws for each) so far, while Nakamura scored slightly worse than that: 3.5/5.

Carlsen won his three white games, but in his two black encounters he was held to a draw by Hrant Melkumyan of Armenia (who also played in Sitges) and Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan. Two of his wins needed a bit of work as well, such as this one—Carlsen himself called it "an objective draw."

Carlsen said he needed a bit of time to warm up, and that he was satisfied with his score so far.

"I am not supposed to be peaking yet; I am hoping to do that in the next few days," said Carlsen.

Carlsen was interviewed by FIDE after five rounds.

Vachier-Lagrave is back at the chessboard in Russia only days after hearing the final verdict of the Russian Chess Federation, which did not give him the wildcard for the candidates.

MVL started with a draw today, and as a result the Swiss pairing system didn't give him very strong opponents in the next two rounds. After two wins, he then also defeated the Czech number-two Viktor Laznicka:

Nakamura started with 2.5/3 but then lost to the former world number-two Alexei Shirov, who showed his great endgame technique:

The only player to start with 4/4 was the 51-year-old Ilya Smirin of Israel, who is one of the leaders after drawing with MVL in round five. Here's Smirin's nice win from round four:

Smirin was interviewed by FIDE after five rounds.

Three players are also on 4.5/5: Leinier Dominguez, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Wang Hao. 

Dominguez ended his day with a spectacular win over Anish Giri. Note the computer defense that was available for the Dutchman:

Mamedyarov, the 2013 world rapid champion, won in round four with a not-too-difficult tactic that still required a bit of calculation:

Wang, one of the eight world-championship candidates next year as the winner in Isle of Man, ground down Shirov in round five in a slightly better endgame:

2019 World Rapid Championship | Round 5 Standings (Top 30)

(Full standings here.)

The situation is a bit similar in the women's section, where just 12 rounds will be played instead of 15. After the four rounds played on the first day, three players still have a perfect score, but none were pre-tournament favorites: IM Meri Arabidze of Georgia, WGM Olga Girya (Russia) and IM Irina Bulmaga (Romania).

Girya defeated two higher-rated opponents: the fifth seed Lei Tingjie of China and the 13th seed Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia. The latter fell victim to a zugzwang trick:

Girya was interviewed by FIDE after four rounds.

Top seed Anna Muzychuk lost as early as round two, when an exchange sacrifice didn't work out:

2019 World Rapid Championship | Round 4 Standings (Top 30)

The world rapid championship, played with 15 minutes and a 10-second increment, continues on December 27 with rounds 6-10, and finishes on December 28 with rounds 11-15. Right after, the world blitz (three minutes plus two-second increment) will be played December 29-30.

Both the world rapid and the world blitz championships have a total prize fund of $350,000 each, with a first prize of $60,000 for each tournament. Both the women's world rapid and the women's world blitz championships have a total prize fund of $150,000 each, with a first prize of $40,000 for each tournament.

Find more information on the world rapid & blitz here.

Chess.com's day one coverage with Yasser Seirawan and Robert Hess.