Hikaru Nakamura
The game opened as h3-Naidorf Sicilian, where soon Nakamura sacrificed a pawn for positional pressure. It looked liked white started to consolidate small material advantage, but then he went astray and black launched a devastating attack that was ending with checkmate.
Sergey Karjakin defended with Meran Slav, but Levon Aronian knows this opening very well and didn’t wait long before sacrificing a bishop for attack. But suddenly, instead of transferring the knight to a more aggressive post on h5, Aronian decided to take a draw by perpetual check.
The clash between Viswanahan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik was a Queen’s Gambit Exchange where both sides castled long and proceeded with long maneuvering. White was aiming for a breakthrough in the center, but his opponent kept firm control over the key e4-square. Following the exchange of all the rooks, the players agreed to a draw.
On Sunday at 11h starts the rapid match between the two legends – Victor Korchnoi and Wolfgang Uhlmann.
Round 1 results:
Anand Viswanathan – Kramnik Vladimir 1/2-1/2
Aronian Levon – Karjakin Sergey 1/2-1/2
Caruana Fabiano – Nakamura Hikaru 0-1
Round 2 pairings:
Kramnik Vladimir – Nakamura Hikaru
Karjakin Sergey – Caruana Fabiano
Anand Viswanathan – Aronian Levon
Vijay Kumar provides the video from the opening ceremony and blitz tournament:
