27 December 2017

Five Rounds of World Rapid Championship Played in Riyadh

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Photo: Official website
Photo: Official website
The first playing day of the King Salman World Rapid Championships among men and women has finished in Saudi Arabia. Many sensations took place: in round 1 the World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway) lost to Bu Xiangzhi (China). Sergey Karjakin (Russia) had a tough start as well, but the reigning World Blitz Champion managed to overcome his run of bad luck. Maxim Vachier-Lagrave (France), one of the main favorites of the event, has sensationally scored 2 points out of 5. 

The leaders are Baadur Jobava (Georgia) and Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), who have got 4.5 points. Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Pavel Ponkratov (all from Russia), Viswanathan Anand (India), Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukraine), Richard Rapport (Hungary), and Ivan Cheparinov (Bulgaria) are trailing by half a point. 

Ju Wenjun is leading the race in the women’s tournament with 5 points. Tan Zhongyi, Guo Qi (all from China), Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia), Bela Khotenashvili (Georgia), Pham Le Thao Nguyen (Vietnam), Padmini Rout, Harika Dronavalli (both from India), and Elisabeth Paehtz (Germany) are 1 point behind.

On December 27, rounds 6-10 will be played. 

Tournament on Chess-Results

Official website