Before the tournament began there was a moment of silence
in honor of Viktor Kortschnoi who died on Monday.
Kasparov makes the first move
The stage
This year World Champion Magnus Carlsen has to defend his title against Sergey Karjakin and therefore has not enough time to take part in the Grand Chess Tour tournament in St. Louis in London. However, he received a wildcard to take part in the rapid- and blitz-tournaments in Paris and Leuven.
The Grand Chess Tour 2016 starts with the tournament in Paris. On Thursday and Friday the ten participants play a rapid tournament, on Saturday and Sunday they will play blitz. The rapid tournament began at 14.00 hrs local time. The organisers of the Grand Chess Tour provided the media and the chess websites with a video-livestream, a marked contrast to the policy of FIDE marketer Agon - a company that at the Candidates Tournament in Moscow even forbid the media to transmit the live-pgns of the games and plans to follow a similar policy during the coming World Championship in November.
World Champion Magnus Carlsen is top favorite in Paris but the tournament did not start well for him. In the first round Carlsen played with White against Wesley So and with bold and creative play the World Champion reached a completely winning position in which he had two queens against queen and knight. But then he could not make up his mind which winning move he should play and lost on time - a bitter loss particularly so because the rapid games are played with a time-limit of 25 minutes for the whole game and a 10-second increment per move.
Carlsen just realised that he had lost on time
But Carlsen recovered quickly and in round two he outplayed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with Black in 26 moves. In round three Carlsen won against Levon Aronian and with 2.0/3 he now shared the lead with Vladimir Kramnik and Hikaru Nakamura.
In round four Carlsen did not slow down and beat Fabiano Caruana with Black to win his third game in a row. With two wins and two draws Hikaru Nakamura was the only player who could keep pace with the World Champion. Veselin Topalov started the tournament with 0.0/3 but managed to beat Anish Giri in round four.
Vladimir Kramnik
Levon Aronian
In the fifth and last round of day the two leaders, Carlsen and Nakamura, met. Carlsen had White but misplayed a Nimzo-Indian and was forced to seriously shatter his pawn structure on the kingside to avoid the loss of a pawn. However, he managed to drum up enough counterplay to hold the game and save the draw.
| 1. Round, 09.06.2016, 14:00 | |||||||||
| Br. | Nr. | Elo | Name | Result | Name | Elo | Nr. | ||
| 1 | 1 | 2846 | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | ½ - ½ | GM | Kramnik Vladimir | 2799 | 10 |
| 2 | 2 | 2771 | GM | Topalov Veselin | 0 - 1 | GM | Caruana Fabiano | 2829 | 9 |
| 3 | 3 | 2738 | GM | Giri Anish | ½ - ½ | GM | Aronian Levon | 2739 | 8 |
| 4 | 4 | 2695 | GM | Fressinet Laurent | ½ - ½ | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | 2784 | 7 |
| 5 | 5 | 2878 | GM | Carlsen Magnus | 0 - 1 | GM | So Wesley | 2652 | 6 |
| 2. Round, 09.06.2016, 15:30 | |||||||||
| Br. | Nr. | Elo | Name | Result | Name | Elo | Nr. | ||
| 1 | 10 | 2799 | GM | Kramnik Vladimir | ½ - ½ | GM | So Wesley | 2652 | 6 |
| 2 | 7 | 2784 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | 0 - 1 | GM | Carlsen Magnus | 2878 | 5 |
| 3 | 8 | 2739 | GM | Aronian Levon | 1 - 0 | GM | Fressinet Laurent | 2695 | 4 |
| 4 | 9 | 2829 | GM | Caruana Fabiano | ½ - ½ | GM | Giri Anish | 2738 | 3 |
| 5 | 1 | 2846 | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | 1 - 0 | GM | Topalov Veselin | 2771 | 2 |
| 3. Round, 09.06.2016, 17:00 | |||||||||
| Br. | Nr. | Elo | Name | Result | Name | Elo | Nr. | ||
| 1 | 2 | 2771 | GM | Topalov Veselin | 0 - 1 | GM | Kramnik Vladimir | 2799 | 10 |
| 2 | 3 | 2738 | GM | Giri Anish | ½ - ½ | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | 2846 | 1 |
| 3 | 4 | 2695 | GM | Fressinet Laurent | 1 - 0 | GM | Caruana Fabiano | 2829 | 9 |
| 4 | 5 | 2878 | GM | Carlsen Magnus | 1 - 0 | GM | Aronian Levon | 2739 | 8 |
| 5 | 6 | 2652 | GM | So Wesley | 0 - 1 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | 2784 | 7 |
| 4. Round, 09.06.2016, 18:30 | |||||||||
| Br. | Nr. | Elo | Name | Result | Name | Elo | Nr. | ||
| 1 | 10 | 2799 | GM | Kramnik Vladimir | 0 - 1 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | 2784 | 7 |
| 2 | 8 | 2739 | GM | Aronian Levon | 0 - 1 | GM | So Wesley | 2652 | 6 |
| 3 | 9 | 2829 | GM | Caruana Fabiano | 0 - 1 | GM | Carlsen Magnus | 2878 | 5 |
| 4 | 1 | 2846 | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | 1 - 0 | GM | Fressinet Laurent | 2695 | 4 |
| 5 | 2 | 2771 | GM | Topalov Veselin | 1 - 0 | GM | Giri Anish | 2738 | 3 |
| 5. Round, 09.06.2016, 20:00 | |||||||||
| Br. | Nr. | Elo | Name | Result | Name | Elo | Nr. | ||
| 1 | 3 | 2738 | GM | Giri Anish | ½ - ½ | GM | Kramnik Vladimir | 2799 | 10 |
| 2 | 4 | 2695 | GM | Fressinet Laurent | ½ - ½ | GM | Topalov Veselin | 2771 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | 2878 | GM | Carlsen Magnus | ½ - ½ | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | 2846 | 1 |
| 4 | 6 | 2652 | GM | So Wesley | ½ - ½ | GM | Caruana Fabiano | 2829 | 9 |
| 5 | 7 | 2784 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | ½ - ½ | GM | Aronian Levon | 2739 | 8 |
Yasser Seirawan, Jennifer Shahade, Maurice Ashley and Alejandro Ramirez, the well-known team from St. Louis commented the games in their usual entertaining and animated way, this time with additional support by the Canadian GM Eric Hansen.
Jennifer Shahade and Yasser Seirawan followed
the events from St. Louis
Alejandro Ramirez and Maurice Ashley were in Paris
Maurice Ashley interviews Hikaru Nakamura,
who had just won against Veselin Topalov.
Alejandro Ramirez
Maurice Ashley interviews Carlsen during the opening ceremony
Vladimir Kramnik enjoys the team match during the opening ceremony
Magnus Carlsen tests the strength of possible future opponents
Garry Kasparov enjoys the Parisian chess culture
The ten participant of the Grand Chess Tour in Paris: Wesley So, Veselin Topalov, Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, Magnus Carlsen, Laurent Fressinet, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vladimir Kramnik, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian
Photos: Grand Chess Tour
Tournament page Grand Chess Tour...
