The first event of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour, Superbet Chess Classic 2021, takes place from June 3-15, 2021 in Bucharest, Romania.
The event is hosted in Stejarii County Club, with 10 participants playing a 9 rounds round-robin tournament. The total prize fund is 325.000$.
LIVE: Grand Chess Tour Romania 2021
The 1st round of the event started after the 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov made the first move of the game Radjabov – Caruana. All the games ended in a peaceful manner.
Round 2 saw some exciting action in Bucharest as World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana won a clean game against the local GM Constantin Lupulescu, while tournament newcomer GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac managed to score a stunning upset over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, joining Caruana at the top of the leaderboard with 1.5/2. The other three games in the round 2 (So-Aronian, Giri-Radjabov, & Mamedyarov-Grischuk) were all drawn shortly before the first time control.
Despite a quiet start to the 3rd round with two short draws, the action quickly heated up as Aronian secured an edge against Caruana and Giri looked to be on the initiative against Lupulescu. Aronian’s advantage was eventually liquidated, while Giri ended up overpressing the attack, and soon blundered into a vicious counterattack from the Romanian No 1. After three rounds, Caruana and Deac remained tied for first with 2.0/3, with six rounds left to play.
Round 4 of the 2021 Superbet Chess Classic saw two new leaders emerge, as Wesley So and Alexander Grischuk both won their games against the previous day’s leaders, Fabiano Caruana and Bogdan-Daniel Deac. With the three other games drawn, So and Grischuk now lead the field with 2.5/4, heading into the halfway mark of the tournament.
Standings after 4 rounds:
Round 5 games:
Bogdan-Daniel Deac – Wesley So
Teimour Radjabov – Alexander Grischuk
Constantin Lupulescu – Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Levon Aronian – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Fabiano Caruana – Anish Giri
Round 4 games: Wesley So – Fabiano Caruana / Anish Giri – Levon Aronian / Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Constantin Lupulescu / Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – Teimour Radjabov / Alexander Grischuk – Bogdan-Daniel Deac
Round 3 games: Alexander Grischuk – Wesley So/Bogdan-Daniel Deac – Shakhriyar Mamedyarov / Teimour Radjabov – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave / Constantin Lupulescu – Anish Giri / Levon Aronian – Fabiano Caruana
Round 2 games: Wesley So – Aronian Levon/ Fabiano Caruana – Constantin Lupulescu/ Anish Giri – Teimour Radjabov/ Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Bogdan-Daniel Deac/ Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – Alexander Grischuk
Round 1 games: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – Wesley So/ Alexander Grischuk – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave/ Bogdan-Daniel Deac – Anish Giri/ Teimour Radjabov – Fabiano Caruana / Constantin Lupulescu – Levon Aronian
