Grenke: An exciting start as Carlsen and Caruana face off

Luck of the draw

Obviously, one should not have expected Fabiano to be at his best, as he was understandably fatigued and emotionally spent after accomplishing his lifelong dream of getting a shot at the title later this fall. All the same, Magnus is a notoriously slow starter, who rarely hits his stride until later in the tournament. As a number of pundits noted, this is actually the fourth consecutive time the two are paired against each other in the opening round of a round-robin. The laws of probability can make one’s head spin.

The game, despite some errors, surely did not disappoint. After a shaky opening Caruana scratched and clawed his way to a draw, while Magnus failed to produce his trademark endgame magic.

Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Magnus Carlsen

King's Indian: A modern approach

Bologan: "If you study this DVD carefully and solve the interactive exercises you will also enrich your chess vocabulary, your King's Indian vocabulary, build up confidence in the King's Indian and your chess and win more games."

Chess Endgames 8 - Practical Rook Endgames

Rook endings are amongst the most frequently encountered endgames there are, and so your training effort will be quickly repaid in the form of half and full points. Knowing even a few rules of thumb and key methods makes life a great deal easier and provides a guiding light even in complex positions. This DVD focuses on the important themes which are to be found in common rook endings.

It was a tense game for all the obvious reasons, and while Carlsen tried to capitalize on Caruana's fatigue, ultimately came up short as they drew. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Power Play Vol.23 and 24

On this DVD, Grandmaster Daniel King offers you a repertoire for Black with the QGD and against the Catalan. The repertoire is demonstrated in 20 stem games, covering all White's major systems.

GM Daniel King also took a look at the headline game of the day

The rest

It is interesting to see two top players, Anand and Vachier-Lagrave, who were missing from the Candidates, returning to action. Both had very adventurous games in round one.

Vishy tried an unusual (for him) approach in the opening, some kind of a reversed setup, effectively used against him by Ian Nepomniatchi in the London Classic last December. However, it failed to surprise Hou Yifan, who came out well-prepared.

Hou Yifan showed excellent preparation against Vishy Anand, but still had to contend with the Indian's great imagination. See his amazing exchange sac idea with 13. Qe2!! | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

The game was quickly thrown into a tactical spin, which must have been a surprise for Anand. Yet, the old tiger kept his head on and managed to stabilize the position by offering an exchange sacrifice eerily resembling the now famous Karjakin-Carlsen game from the Candidates.

Vishy Anand ½-½ Hou Yifan

The Art of the Positional Exchange Sacrifice

The positional exchange sacrifice is one of the most powerful and fascinating strategic weapons in chess. On this DVD Sergey Tiviakov explains why the positional exchange sacrifice is such a strong weapon and how to use it.

The giant playing hall with the open in the foreground, from which the winner will qualify for the elite Grenke Classic on the stage in the rear | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave didn't wait long before launching his pawns forward, a rather dangerous strategy against the capable tactician Arkadij Naiditsch. The German player obliged by offering a piece sacrifice that put MVL's troops in a bind. Maxime spurned a couple of drawish lines in favour of counterattack, which, perhaps, would not have been sufficient had Arkadij found the best response.

Arkadij Naiditsch ½-½ Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Levon Aronian just suffered a heavy blow at the Candidates. Not only did his hopes of getting to play for the World Championship disappear once again, but to add injury to insult this time Levon had the worst tournament result of his entire career. Frankly, I would have found it a reasonable request if Aronian had asked to be excused from coming to play here, but he did not. I can only hope that Levon plays well here. His start wasn't so bad: a draw with Black.

Levon Aronian started his extraordinary 2017 campaign precisely in the Grenke Classic which he won, and well. No doubt he has good memories and is hoping for some of that magic to rub off this year. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Georg Meier ½-½ Levon Aronian

One nice thing about the Grenke tournaments is that the organizers don't go the old tired road of trying for the highest category event, but, instead, leave spots open for local talent. The appearance of Matthias Bluebaum for the second year in a row bodes well for the future of German chess. Granted he had a rough time last year, and started this year's campaign with a horrible blunder today, but things should improve!

Matthias Bluebaum 0-1 Nikita Vitiugov

Winning against the Classical Slav

The videos on this DVD give White a repertoire with concrete variations against all main lines Black can play and also show the typical strategic and tactical ideas of the Slav and the hidden subtleties of the position.

Watch out for Vitiugov. Despite keeping his rating above 2700 for many years, Nikita hasn't had a chance to compete in elite tournaments since the 2013 Alekhine Memorial. Vitiugov earned the right to be here by winning the Grenke Open last year, and has more experience now, so he may not be in the mood to waste this opportunity to make a statement about the quality of his chess.

Altogether, it was an electrifying start, and I'm hopeful for a great tournament this year at the Grenke Classic.

Links

• Official site
• Magnus' next moves
• Caruana's first reaction