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The mini-match started with three draws, with an interesting final position in the second of these games:
Would we see a decisive result in the fourth game? Yes! As Black, Radjabov played solidly and suffered from a lack of space when Aronian lost a pawn in unfortunate circumstances. It was worth seeing how Radjabov then calmly extended his solid position into a win:
So the first set goes to Radjabov. On Sunday, Aronian will be under pressure to win. Such a situation has been a regular occurrence in this tournament — it is definitely good to create tension, but perhaps less so for the quality of the games.
In the first two games Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was outplayed by Daniil Dubov. This is how game 2 went, for example:
In the third game Dubov seemed to be completely safe and could have ended the day with a draw, but then he entered into a bad endgame and lost. So the players did play a fourth game.
And Vachier-Lagrave managed to mount a comeback. When the dust had settled in the fourth game, the Frenchman had two bishops and an extra pawn against Dubov’s rook and knight. Normally this material distribution would give about a half-point advantage for the player with the rook, but in this case Vachier-Lagrave had two passed pawns. Once again Dubov was faced with a difficult endgame to defend, and once again he failed to keep the balance. The duel for third place is thus tied after the first day.
