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The opening day of the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam saw six of the eleven rapid round-robin games completed, with Magnus Carlsen and Nodirbek Abdusattorov emerging as joint leaders on 5/6 points.
Carlsen, the perennial favourite, secured five wins but suffered a single loss to Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi. In contrast, Abdusattorov, a late replacement for Hans Niemann, remained unbeaten, achieving four wins and two draws to match Carlsen's score.
Just behind the leaders is French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who impressed with a solid performance, remaining undefeated and collecting 4½ points. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi follows on 4 points, keeping close pace ahead of the final five rounds on Tuesday.
At the other end of the standings, Richard Rapport and Vidit Gujrathi find themselves in a difficult position, having each managed only 1 point across the six rounds. Also under pressure are reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, who has scored just 1½ points, and Germany's Vincent Keymer, the winner of the Weissenhaus leg, who sits on 2 points.
Standings after round 6
Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Lennart Ootes
In the first round, Vidit had the tough task of facing Carlsen with the black pieces. After getting a slight edge out of the opening, Vidit eventually simplified into a position with a rook and six pawns against Carlsen's rook, knight and three pawns.
The Indian GM failed to make the most of his passers, and the position eventually turned into a pure rook and knight (for White) versus rook endgame. Vidit kept defending the theoretically drawn position until move 115 - when he suddenly faltered, allowing his famed opponent to win the game instantly.
115...Kh5 is the only move that draws here, while 115...Kh7, as played in the game, allows 116.Kf7, and Black resigned.
The problem for Vidit is that 116.Kh6 fails to 116...Rh3#, as the knight on f3 controls the escape square on g5.
Vidit Gujrathi | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The two late replacements in Paris were paired against each other in round three. Rapport, who is replacing Alireza Firouzja, had the black pieces against Abdusattorov, who is replacing Hans Niemann.
A wild battle saw big swings in the engines' evaluation throughout the middlegame. But what would turn out to be the deciding point of the game was reached on move 35.
Following the erroneous 35.Ke1, Black could have got a winning position with 35...Rh2, entering a winning endgame after 36.Bxh7 Nxb1 37.Nc4 Rxh3, and the extra exchange is enough to get the win.
Instead, Rapport's 35...Nxb1 allowed Abdusattorov to turn the tables with 36.Kxf2 axb2 37.c4 Nc3 38.Bxh7
The outside passer on the h-file allows White to win the game in all lines here. This was Abdusattorov's third straight win at the outset of the event.
Elite GMs at work | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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