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The greatest chess tournament ever staged in Belgium, Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour, is taking place in the historic Town Hall of Leuven from Friday 17 June to Monday 20 June. The best chess players in the world at the moment will take part in the tournament: World Champion Magnus Carlsen, former World Champions Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, as well as Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura, Aronian Levon, Wesley So and Veselin Topalov.
The players will compete in a Rapid Chess and Blitz Chess tournament during the four days. The prize money for the tournament is $150.000 (€134.100). Chess fans will be able to enjoy the experience of seeing the greatest players compete live in Leuven or watch the streaming broadcast, complete with grandmaster commentary.
Follow the games live on playchess
All photos by Lennart Ootes
The start of the Blitz phase
The blitz event was one of the most anticipated parts of the Leuven Grand Chess Tour in no small part due to its importance and weight in the overall scores. Whereas on the one hand you have the rapid leg with a round-robin in which each of the nine games is worth double, the blitz games may only be worth normal values, but there are twice as many. That means that ultimately rapid and blitz are each worth exactly half the points in the combined scores.
The opening with two hands, an honor that can be shared
After an amazing surge in the second day of the rapid, Magnus Carlsen took the early lead in Leuven by winning it by one point ahead of Wesley So and the rest of the field. Still, the question as to how the blitz would go and how much it might swing was very much in the air. As the players have not stopped explaining: one of the very rough aspects of such an event is that in a normal classical tournament, if you have a bad day, at worst it will cost you a single point. In a rapid or blitz event, you are playing entire series of games and that one bad day at the office can sink you irrevocably before you get a hold of yourself.
Vijay Kumar films the action. See his highlights video below!
The opinions on who would take the blitz section were fairly evenly divided between Magnus and Nakamura for obvious reasons: they are the two strongest blitz players in the world and there were plenty of reasons to lean toward one or the other. This isn't to necessarily say they are the ones everyone was rooting for, just who everyone thought likely to take it.
Levon Aronian starting his game with Magnus Carlsen in round one
Magnus fought back, but it was a sign how balanced the field was
that he was far from unblemished
Carlsen - MVL
A delighted MVL scores a win over the World Champion with an exciting Sicilian
Vishy Anand was about par as he scored 50% in the first leg with 4.5/9
Anish Giri has been unable to shine in the two first events in Paris and Leuven
These frenetic days are exhausting
Levon Aronian was the winner of day one of the blitz with 5.5/9, the highest score of the
day. Watch his spectacular miniature over Wesley So.
Aronian - So
Not that Wesley had anything to complain about. He is clear second
in the combined standings behind Carlsen so far.
Fabiano Caruana isn't exactly known as the best blitz player in the elite, but he is definitely underrated
He did mate Magnus after all. Literally.
A favorite of fans and pundits, Nakamura played well, and was in the pack of players with
5.0/9, but was unable to take off and leave everyone in the dust as he would have liked
In the last round of the day, the two best blitz players squared off
Nakamura - Carlsen
Video highlights of day one of the blitz (courtesy of Vijay Kumar)
Note: In the overall standings, rapid games are worth 2 points for a win, one point for a draw and zero for a loss.
Thus each score above is worth double. Blitz games are worth the usual one for a win and half a point for a draw.
LinksThe games are being 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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