The Week in Chess

Vladimir Kramnik suffered a shock defeat after having to give up a piece against Arkadij Naiditsch and whilst he had some compensation to start it gradually wasn't enough (24.g3 instead of 24.f3)

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu scored a crushing win against Wesley So. This looked like so many Grand Prix attack games of the 1970s black didn't seem to do a lot wrong but just had his position torn apart. 12.Nb5 put black in trouble but So's 12...Qxb5 left him with a lost position and white had all the fun after that.

Fabiano Caruana in his first event under the US flag after his transfer back had much the better of his game against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Both players had come straight from other tournaments, Caruana from Norway and Nepomniachtchi from Cuba. Caruana had a nice advantage at move 25 but by first time control Nepomiachtchi managed to trade down, so all the play was on the king-side and he had a holdable position.

Georg Meier had nagging positional pressure straight from the Catalan Opening against Hou Yifan. The women's number one was condemned to a long and unpleasant defence and was indeed completely lost at one stage (50.Kc5 for instance) but was allowed to escape with a draw.

Round 1 Standings: Naiditsch, Nisipeanu 1pt, Caruana, Nepomniachtchi, Hou Yifan, Meier 0.5pts, So, Kramnik 0pts.

Round 2 Pairings: Caruana-So, Naiditsch-Nisipeanu, Hou-Kramnik, Nepomniachtchi-Meier