World Rapid - Day 1: Fedoseev, Jobava, and Ju Wenjun

Busy 2017 calendar ends on a high note

The King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championship, which has started in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, boasts the highest ever prize fund for any chess event aside of World Championship matches. The winners of both Rapid and Blitz will come away with a quarter of million USD in the open section, and $80,000 in the Women's.

Who is playing, who is not

Players from 55 countries, among them 10 from the World Top 15 as well as 11 out the women’s World Top 15 are competing in this prestigious event.

It is understandable, however that some players, including the U.S. Big Three and the Muzychuk sisters of Ukraine, chose not to take part. Every person decides for themselves, and their reasons are to be respected. I just wonder about the timing, Saudi Arabia seems to be going through some sort of political and social changes, designed to make it more open to Western customs. One sign of it was the lifting of the demand that women participants have their hair covered by scarves while playing. It is replaced by a standard corporate-looking appearance code of suits, collared shirts and dress shoes, which incidentally applies to both sexes. I don't find this a bad idea at all. Chess can only gain from instilling proper fashion sense in their practitioners. As for what's happening outside of the playing venue I couldn't care less. Nobody came to Riyadh for a vacation, it is five days filled with chess and nothing else. [For further discussion and context, see "FIDE's Riyadh Gambit" -Ed.]

Day One

The King Salman World Rapid Championship is a 15-round swiss system tournament for both the Open and the Women’s events, played over three days with five rounds per day.

To the chess. I'd like to respond to a faster rate of play, 15 minutes with a 10-second increment, as opposed to FIDE's standard G/25+10, by introducing more examples, rather than analyzing everything in depth. Too much scrutiny would be unfair to the players.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen is there as the hands-down favorite in both the Rapid and Blitz disciplines, if only because of his large leads in the rating lists. While Carlsen's performances in Classical Chess have been less than stellar this year, his dominance in faster time controls was confirmed during both the Grand Chess Tour over the board, and the Chess.com Championship played online.

Shockingly, Magnus' campaign in Riyadh started off with a loss to the same guy who knocked him out of the World Cup, and again Carlsen had the white pieces. Bu happened twice!

Bu Xiangzhi managed the rare feat of beating Magnus Carlsen twice in the year | Photo: riyadh2017.fide.com

Magnus Carlsen 0-1 Bu Xiangzhi (annotated by GM Alex Yermolinsky)

Master Class Vol.8: Magnus Carlsen

Scarcely any world champion has managed to captivate chess lovers to the extent Carlsen has. The enormously talented Norwegian hasn't been systematically trained within the structures of a major chess-playing nation such as Russia, the Ukraine or China.

True to himself, Magnus responded in kind by scoring 3½ / 4 in the remaining games of the day. I particularly liked the exclamation point he posted in Round 5 by defeating FIDE World Champion of 2004, Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

Magnus Carlsen struck back with 3½ / 4 and is a clear contender in spite of his shock loss in the first round | Photo: riyadh2017.fide.com

Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Rustam Kasimdzhanov (annotated by GM Alex Yermolinsky)

Another former World Champ (of course, he won it many times and under different systems), Vishy Anand seemed to have enjoyed himself today. His game was flowing naturally, and good things were happening almost by themselves. Of course, there's more than meets the eye, and I would like to present a couple of snippets of Anand's inspired attacks.

Anand attacks

My Career Vol. 1

The first DVD with videos from Anand's chess career reflects the very beginning of that career and goes as far as 1999. It starts with his memories of how he first learned chess and shows his first great games (including those from the 1984 WCh for juniors). The high point of his early developmental phase was the winning of the 1987 WCh for juniors. After that, things continue in quick succession: the first victories over Kasparov, WCh candidate in both the FIDE and PCA cycles and the high point of the WCh match against Kasparov in 1995.
Running time: 3:48 hours

Not all favorites started the tournament well. It's unusual, to say the least, to see Aronian and Mamedyarov with only one win apiece, but it pales in comparison to Vachier-Lagrave's three (!) losses that left him with only 2 / 5.

It was a tough first day at the office for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (right) | Photo: riyadh2017.fide.com

On the other hand, Svidler and Grischuk looked very poised. Both Russians got to 4 / 5 without much trouble. A quick draw they made in Round 4 was expected, as tougher battles are still ahead.

Alexander Grischuk is an automatic favorite thanks to his extreemly strong track record in rapid and blitz | Photo: official site

The leaders

In the end Day One belonged to Vladimir Fedoseev and Baadur Jobava who finished at 4½ / 5 and will be facing each other in Round 6.

Fedoseev is making a habit of starting with four wins. He did it at the Russian Superfinal, only to butcher the tournament due to his uncompromising (read, foolish) attempts to win every game when an occasional draw wouldn't hurt his tournament standings.

Vladimir apologized to his ever-growing army of fans, and promised to do better next time. It's not like finishing equal 3-4 in the Russian Championship is a disaster, anyway, but seemingly the bar has been set much higher. The question is how Fedoseev plans to improve. “Remember, the car has more than just an accelerator pedal” was the advice from one of his supporters. I suspect the reply would be, “ah, are there two accelerator pedals?”

Everything went Fedoseev's way today. See for yourself.

Fedoseev on fire

This all-star field and rapid time controls ensure non-stop action and fun for chess fans around the world | Photo: riyadh2017.fide.com

Power Play 2 - Attacking the king

Checkmate ends the game – that’s an undeniable fact. Yet one sometimes gains the impression that players who gleefully and unashamedly play for the attack are treated as a joke by their colleagues. Launching a successful attack is a skillful business that often demands great creativity. And like most themes in chess, this is a skill that can be honed and polished.

Baadur Jobava doesn't like to be upstaged when it comes to uncompromising play. We all remember how he crashed and burned in his only appearance at the high stage of the Grand Chess Tour in Leuven last summer. The thing with guys like Jobava is that they never learn. And why should he? Watch him win.

Jubilant Jobava

Granted, Lady Luck smiled broadly on both leaders in Day One. They will be facing a tough test as the tournament rolls along. With 30 players positioned within one point of first place we should expect a very tight race.

Ju Wenjun was supreme in the Women's section with a perfect 5.0/5 start | Photo: official site

Standings after five rounds (open)

Complete standings

Standings after five rounds (women)

Complete standings

All games

Links

• Official site
• Twitter channel
• Facebook page
• Watch live
• FIDE's Riyadh Gambit