The Week in Chess

There was an explosive start to the first day of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge (#HeritageChess) with five out of six games finishing decisively and four out of six in the second before settling down for the final two rounds of the day. The eleven round all-play-all preliminary part of the competition will take three days and eliminate the bottom four competitors.

Magnus Carlsen started with two wins, beating Alexander Grischuk and Levon Aronian, he also had a winning position against Hikaru Nakamura but the American defended stubbornly and Carlsen couldn't find a way through. Carlsen was still pleased with his play and said he was aiming for first place and seeding for the second phase may become important. Nakamura also started impressively beating Sergey Karjakin (who then won three games in a row to also join the leaders. Wesley So also looked in good form winning a couple of games. Ding Liren is half a point further behind and missed a very good chance for a win against Alireza Firouzja.

Favourites for elimination right now are Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Daniil Dubov, Alireza Firouzja and Wei Yi all of whom started with 1/4.

Round 4 Standings: 1st= Nakamura, Carlsen, Karjakin, So 3pts, 5th Ding 2.5pts, 6th= Grischuk, Aronian 2pts, 8th Yu Yangyi 1.5pts, 9th= Wei Yi, Duda, Dubov, Firouzja 1pt.

Day 2 starts at 3pm BST;

Round 5: Ding-Grischuk, Nakamura-Aronian, Yu-Carlsen, Wei-Firouzja, Duda-Dubov, So-Karjakin

Round 6: Grischuk-Karjakin, Dubov-So, Firouzja-Duda, Carlsen-Wei, Aronian-Yu, Ding-Nakamura

Round 7: Nakamura-Grischuk, Yu-Ding, Wei-Aronian, Duda-Carlsen, So-Firouzja, Karjakin-Dubov

Round 8: Grischuk-Dubov, Firouzja-Karjakin, Carlsen-So, Aronian-Duda, Ding-Wei Nakamura-Yu