31 March 2018

Nikita Vitiugov Starts Grenke Chess Classic With Victory

Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana make a draw.

Photo by Georgios Souleidis
Photo by Georgios Souleidis

On March 31, the first round games of Grenke Chess Classic were played in Karlsruhe. Nikita Vitiugov gained a bright victory against Matthias Bluebaum. Magnus Carlsen was close to defeat Fabiano Caruana, but the candidate for the title managed to survive. The games Meier - Aronian, Naiditsch - Vachier-Lagrave, and Anand - Hou Yifan were drawn as well. 



Standings after round 1:

1. Nikita Vitiugov - 1 
2-9. Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Viswanathan Anand, Arkadij Naiditsch, Hou Yifan, Georg Meier - 0.5 
10. Matthias Bluebaum - 0.

Round 2 pairings:

Carlsen - Hou Yifan, Vachier-Lagrave - Anand, Aronian - Naiditsch, Vitiugov - Meier, Caruana - Bluebaum.  

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