Zurich 01: Carlsen, Aronian start strong

The «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014» will be the first encounter between the newly crowned World Champion, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, and the former title holder, India’s Viswanathan Anand after their recent match in Chennai. From Wednesday, 29 January to Tuesday, 4 February 2014, they will compete in the 3rd Zurich Chess Challenge along with four other great chess stars: Levon Aronian (Armenia), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Fabiano Caruana (Italy) and Boris Gelfand (Israel).

Round One

Everything's ready for round one

Carlsen starts strong in his first game as World Champion

Round one started with two important victories by the favorites. Magnus Carlsen played an impressive, accurate and well calculated game against Boris Gelfand:

Gelfand certainly did not play a bad game, but Carlsen's accuracy was out of this world

Aronian was not one to be left behind. Despite the fact that his technique was not as clean cut as usual, he still managed to pull himself together and convert his extra piece against Vishy Anand

Anand despaired under pressure and Aronian mopped up sufficiently well

Nakamura played until the last moment but he could not break down Caruana's endgame defenses

The last duel of the game was also very interesting. Fabiano Caruana showed a superior opening knowledge in a topical variation of the Grunfeld and obtained a superior position. However from then on he started getting outplayed until Nakamura obtained an endgame where his knight provided a pleasant advantage over Caruana's bishop. The Italian lost a pawn but obtained some counterplay that allowed him to hold on to dear life, and he ended with a draw. Nakamura mentioned that he felt he was close to winning in the press conference, but he could not see how to make progress. Indeed Leko in the analysis room with the assistance of Pelletier and the engines also could not see how to win.

IM Werner Hug, GM Yanick Pelletier and GM Peter Leko in the commentary room

Replay round one games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Cristian Chirila - Guest Commentator Former World u-16 Champion and currently a grandmaster finishing his studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, Cristian is an ambitious chess player. Find out more about Cristian, including his chess lesson services, biography and games here.

Maria Emelianova - Photographer Maria Emelianova is 26 years old, born in Ekaterinburg, Russia, Women FIDE Master, with a 2113 Elo rating. After finishing school Maria moved to Moscow to study at the university, so chess was forgotten for some time. She worked for about a year with Alexander Roshal in the chess magazine "64". Her carrier as a chess photographer started at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. "It was just a hobby, but somehow became an interesting job," says Maria, who works with a Canon 1DX. "Now I am finishing my studies at two universities in Moscow, and am looking forward to a future in the big world of chess."

Schedule and Pairings

The event is a six player round robin, with a rate of play of 40 moves in 120 minutes, then 20 moves in 60 minutes and the rest of game in 15 minutes, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting after move 61. Special rule: in case of a draw before move 40, an additional rapid game will be played (which does not count for the overall result).

• The blitz will be used to determine the colors
• The classical time control gives two points to wins, one for draws and none for losses
• The rapid time control gives one point to wins, half to draws and none for losses

The winner will be the one who scores the most points between the classical tournament and the rapid.

Schedule of Commentary

Schedule and results

Rapid Schedule

Links Official tournament site All Games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.