Caruana, Anand Unlikely Leaders After Day 1
Former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana and Former World Champion Viswanathan Anand scored 2.5/3 to kick off the Paris Rapid & Blitz earlier today. Both players won their first two games, then split the point against each other. The most notable absence of the tournament is World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who won the first two events. However, the second and third placed players in the Grand Chess Tour, Wesley So and Ding Liren, aren't attending the event either. Thus, this creates leeway for many players to sneak up in the standings.
My brief predictions weren't very accurate, but here they are anyway.
Here are all the games of Rounds 1-3, annotated by Peter Doggers and GM Dejan Bojkov.
The Paris Rapid & Blitz standings after day one. | Image: Spectrum Studios.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Caruana, among others, would make big surges in the Grand Chess Tour standings if the event were to end now. Here are the 'live' GCT standings:
The final four would be Carlsen, So, Caruana, and Vachier-Lagrave.
*Note: Caruana and Anand both received 11 points, however if they were tied for first they would have a playoff to determine who gets 12 points and who gets 10.
