Anish Giri is a sole leader of the Skilling Open after scoring 4/5 on Day 1, and it could have been more, since he took a draw in a close to winning position against Hikaru Nakamura. Magnus Carlsen feared the worst after blundering his queen against Ian Nepomniachtchi and then letting a win slip against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The World Chess Champion needn’t have worried, however, as he bounced back to win the next three games. The surprise of the day was bottom seed David Anton, who beat Svidler, Nepomniachtichi and Radjabov to tie with Magnus for 2nd place.
After a poor start, Magnus thought it might be a bad day at the office, but he stormed back to beat Teimour Radjabov, David Anton and Alireza Firouzja, saying of the 17-year-old prodigy, “It’s always good to beat him while I still can!”
The win against David Anton was also important since the Spanish Champion still tied Magnus for 2nd place after beating Peter Svidler, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Teimour Radjabov.
Meanwhile, almost everything went right for Anish Giri, who pointed out afterward he could have scored even more points. He explained that he took the draw against Hikaru Nakamura because he thought he’d squandered almost all his advantage, when in fact he was still doing very well.
Text and photo: chess24.com
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