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Well they're off and the clocks are running. Heres hoping to see good chess in the first round.
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They did not disappoint. The most fascinating of the games is Giri - Nepo. Dynamic pawn play and lots of it.Comment
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It looks like the English Opening will be thoroughly explored. 3 out of four games are English. The other MVL - Caruana is a Ruy Lopez (Spanish to some).Comment
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Caruana is the top seed. Im keeping a close eye on that game. MVL had an interesting knight adventure (17.Nxf7) but it doesnt seem like he got much from the resulting discovered check, in fact it looks like Caruana has the initiative.Comment
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Alekseenko played 17...Na5 which allowed Grischuk to get his central pawn wedge into motion. Interesting positional play based on Grischuks pawn chain (c3,d4,e5,f4)Comment
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Ding decided to force the position with 30.f4 and is now in trouble.Comment
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Giri decided to force the play with 29.Bxc4 and allowed pressure play on the long diagonal and potentially against the kings position. He then decided to give up the queen for rook and bishop giving Nepo a large advantage (according to the computer) However the resulting endgame with interesting pawn play is not that easy to convert.Comment
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Bishops of opposite colours gave MVL enough to hold and with a queen exchange we have our first result = draw.Comment
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We have a surprising draw in Grischuk - Alekseenko as Grischuk did nothing with his central pawn wedge.Comment
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Giri missed a fortress with 46.Re5+ and Rxe4. Question is does he still have one? (with 46.Rg5?)Comment
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Wang Hao has interesting move choices in an interesting endgame. In a lot of lines he gets 3 passed pawns for the exchange. The position is his to win.Comment
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Wang Hao has the first win of the candidates!Comment
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Endgame dynamics in all the games!Comment
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Qd5! by Nepo - beautiful centralization of the queen with Kf6 to follow.Comment
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