Candidates R01: Anand the first to score

The 2016 FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament is a 14-round event, which determines the next Challenger to Magnus Carlsen's title, is taking place in Moscow from March 10–30. Eight players, including six of the World’s top-ten rated grandmasters. The time control is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move one. The guaranteed prize fund is US $420,000.

Candidates Round one: Anand the first to score

Full report from Moscow by IM Sagar Shah

It is said that good things are never easily achieved – you have to work hard for them. Similarly, for all the people who made their way to the Central Telegraph building on the Tverskaya Street in Moscow, to enjoy the Candidates 2016, had to wait for quite a bit of time outside before they were admitted into the building.

We waited for nearly half an hour to get to the next level

After getting admitted into the building we climbed five flights of stairs to reach a final security check
where everyone was carefully monitored, before they could enter the playing and press area.

Even big names like Andrey Filatov and Zurab Azmaiparashvili had to wait in the queue …

… before they could take their seats for the 2 p.m. press conference along with AGON CEO Ilya Merenzon.

The interest of local and international press and reporters is extremely high

Soon it was nearing three p.m. and the games were about to begin. The people with “Press” cards were allowed inside the tournament hall where the players were going to fight it out. The reporters had exactly ten minutes (five with flash, five without it) to take as many pictures as they wanted.

The official FIDE chess sets were used on all the four boards of the event

The magnitude of an event is often determined by the guests who attend its opening.
In the above picture we have two Presidents. Can you identify them?

Chief Arbiter Wener Stubevoll takes a final look at the arrangements before the first round

Sergey Karjakin vs Peter Svidler 0.5-0.5

The two World Cup 2015 gladiators faced off against each other in the first round of the Candidates. Karjakin’s main weapon as White is, of course, 1.e4, but from time to time he likes to start with 1.Nf3. The players soon reached the main line of the Slav Defence and as Svidler put it in the press conference, “Sergey chose the only line which I hadn’t studied in the morning! But it was important to show that I knew the position and hence made the move 9…Bd7 quickly.” As it turned out Svidler’s modest setup became quite potent when all his pieces started to co-ordinate perfectly. Karjakin had to forget about an opening advantage and instead had to focus on making accurate defensive moves to hold the balance. Being an excellent defender, Sergey did that to perfection. Soon most of the pieces were exchanged and the game petered (no pun intended) out to a draw.

Three friends, Sergey Karjakin, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Peter Svidler,
enjoy a nice session of post mortem after the first round game ended in a draw

Hikaru Nakamura vs Fabiano Caruana 0.5-0.5

The mouth-watering clash between the two Americans lived up to its expectations

“It is just like any other super tournament, with the addition that there are many photographers and reporters!” That was Hikaru Nakamura’s answer when he was asked whether he felt any nerves about playing his first Candidates. He faced his country mate Fabiano Caruana in the first round and the two provided quite an interesting opening for the fans to view and analyze: the English Opening transposed into a weird Benoni where Caruana’s knight on e7 didn’t look particularly impressive. Hikaru maintained the pressure for quite some time, until he made an inaccuracy and the game ended in a draw in 31 moves.

“I knew I was better but during the game it didn’t look as if it was much!” – Hikaru Nakamura

Viswanathan Anand vs Veselin Topalov 1-0

Anand was White. He began with 1.e4, and his opponent replied 1…e5. His was the only decisive game of the round, and the tournament was in Russia. All of these things happened today and also in Candidates 2014! Talk about Déjà vu! Whether Anand will win this year’s Candidates or not is still a question that is a long way off, but he surely he made a good start. Playing the Anti Berlin with 4.d3, Anand improvised on the existing games with a novelty on move 12. Topalov faced hardly any difficulties to equalize. As Anand said in the press conference, “I had to take the bait on b7, otherwise all my pieces would just end up looking silly.” The pawn surely was not for free as Topalov got loads of activity in return. In fact on the 20th move he even had a combination starting with 20…Bxf2+! which would have given the Bulgarian a clear advantage.

Topalov had his eyes wide open before the start of the game, but failed to see the Bxf2 tactic on move 20

Veselin didn’t go for that line and instead chose a variation that turned the evaluation 180 degrees. Anand held the advantage, and although his technique was not the best, he managed to win the game and take home the full point.

Another Candidates victory? Fingers crossed! Anand is the sole leader with 1.0/1 after the first round

A very nice video prepared by AGON on Vishy Anand, which is shown during the commentary breaks

The thing which stood out was Topalov’s great sporting behavior in spite of the loss

Anish Giri vs Levon Aronian 0.5-0.5

The thing which stood out in this round was surely Anish Giri’s persistence. The Dutch grandmaster is famous for being super solid, sometimes not taking enough risks. But today Anish was not ready to split the point. He fought on and on right until the bitter end. The computer keeps showing 0.00 after a certain point, but that doesn’t make much sense because both the players agreed that White was better and Black’s defensive task was not so easy. The game lasted nearly 65 moves with Aronian taking refuge in a theoretically drawn pawn endgame. It was the last game to finish.

Anish Giri and Levon Aronian entertained the crowd
with some highly instructive post-mortem analysis

The final move for the final game: Giri concedes the draw at 20:37h Moscow time

Guests on day one

One of the distinguished guests on the first day was Boris Gelfand. He spent a lot of time in the commentary room and when he wasn’t speaking about the games he was busy posing for pictures with his friends and fans! By the way, in case you are interested to increase the level of your chess understanding you must have a look at the video broadcast of round one here and watch Boris’ instructive comments.

Topalov’s manager Silvio Danailov (sitting) has a word with
the Wijk Aan Zee tournament director Jeroen van Den Berg

Local stars Vladimir Potkin (standing), Ian Nepomniachtchi and
Maxim Matlakov enthusiastically followed the games on the big screen

Levon Aronian’s fiancé Arianne Caoili is in Moscow and watched the live games on the first day

On a parting note we would like you to have a look at the walls in the background of this tournament hall. It looks like a dilapidated building, but the organizing committee has turned it around so well for this event. It gives a traditional and historical feel and at the same time everything about the game and organization is modern. A nice blend!

Pictures by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India, World Chess live broadcast

Pairings and results

• Official tournament site + live broadcast
• Download all games in PGN
• All ChessBase reports (+ reports on ChessBase India)