Wang Hao, Ilia Smirin, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Leinier Dominguez are the leaders of the Open section after the first day of the King Salman Rapid World Championship. Among women, Arabidze shares the first place with Olga Girya and Irina Bulmaga, the three of them with a perfect score. 

Round one of the Rapid World Championship started with the president of the Saudi chess federation Rami Altassan making the first move at board one of the Open event, while FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich did the same in the women’s tournament.

After five rounds in the Open Rapid, there are five players at the top, but all are half a point shy of a 100% score. Among them, however, one name stands out: Ilia Smirin. It is not often nowadays that you see anyone over 40 on the top of a tournament where the world elite play, but the 51-year-old Israeli GM did just that. Referring to the fact that he has risen up among a pack of “young lions”, Smirin noted with a smile that “even lions are prey to other animals sometimes”.

The top group is led by Wang Hao – the Chinese player who surprisingly won the Isle of Man Grand Swiss to secure a place at the upcoming Candidates. Wang Hao climbed to the top together with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Ilya Smirin and Leinier Dominguez. Magnus Carlsen is just a half-point behind them.

It is worth noting that the first game of the World Rapid and Blitz Championship was decided after 27 minutes and 26 moves. Not surprisingly, it was the World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, who delivered on this, defeating Azamat Utegaliyev of Kazakhstan. However, Carlsen got off to a poor start in round two but managed to edge a draw with Hrant Melkumyan of Armenia. In round three the World Champion defeated Boris Savchenko but then had another hiccup with Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan in round four as the game was drawn. In round five Carlsen dispatched Aleksandr Shimanov and is set to face Wang Hao.

Despite not being the leader on the first day, Carlsen always played at the top board. This decision was made for technical reasons thus allowing the Norwegian national television to cover their favorite. There is a special daily program about the Rapid and Blitz going live in the world champion’s home country.

The performance of Nihal Sarin, the promising 15-year-old prodigy from India is also worth mentioning. The teenager did not flinch and scored 3.5 out of five. His rapid rating is 2292 – low compared to most others – but this is only because he hasn’t played enough tournaments. The position of a “formal underdog” in every game he plays at this event (assuming he performs well) is likely to play into Sarin’s hands.

The Women’s tournament

The first day of the women’s rapid started with an upset in round one as the second-seated Alexandra Kosteniuk lost to Baira Kovanova who is 280-points lower-rated! Round two saw another dramatic moment as Monika Socko (Poland) defeated the 2016 Women’s World Rapid winner and the top-rated player at this tournament, Anna Muzychuk. By round four, both Muzychuk sisters were on 50% – an underwhelming result by their standards. Altogether, seven players finished three rounds with a maximum score: a Russian FM Ekaterina Goltseva (ranked 91st at the start) was leading the pack, followed by Dinara Dordzhieva (Russia), Meri Arabidze (Georgia), Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia), Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mongolia), Olga Girya (Russia) and Irina Bulmaga (Romania).

The nature of the fast-tempo play is that mistakes are more common and sudden turnarounds happen quickly. This was the case in Round four – the final round of the day for the Women’s tournament (they are playing 12 games instead of 15 as is the case in the Open section). Playing on board one Olga Girya managed to score a full point in a drawish endgame after Nana Dzagnidze made a terrible blunder, while Meri Arabidze outplayed Ekaterina Goltseva. Irina Bulmaga beat Batkhuyag Munguntuul, while Dinara Dordzhieva lost to Tan Zhongyi of China. After four rounds, Arabidze (Georgia), Girya (Russia) and Bulmaga (Romania) are tied for the first at the women’s tournament.

Official website and LIVE broadcast: https://wrbc2019.com

Text: Milan Dinic

Photos: Lennart Ootes & David Llada

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