With Magnus Carlsen in action at the European Club Club, I decided to take at least a cursory look at (maybe?) all of the round 1 games. From this, I’ve picked out four games, each of which saw an elite player either nicked for half a point or in grave danger of losing. As is common in Swisses, the early rounds generally feature serious mismatches, but there are no guarantees. Both world champions - the current titleholder (Carlsen) and his predecessor (Viswanathan Anand) - were held to draws. Nikita Meshkovs, Carlsen’s opponent, wisely went for a safe main line, and at one point his advantage was getting close to a win. Meshkovs was unable to maintain it, but he was never in any danger and drew very comfortably.
For Anand matters were easier, but his opponent was never in any real danger either. Despite his sloppy 10th move, former Candidate Johann Hjartarson succeeding in neutralizing his slight disadvantage and made a comfortable draw. Meshkovs’ and Hjartarson’s draws may not have done enough for their teams, but given the rating situation it’s unfair to lay that at their feet.
The other two games featured two of the super-prodigies from India, Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin. Erigaisi was flat-out lost - several times - while Sarin was merely significantly worse. And even after their very considerably lower-rated opponents missed their chances for the full point, there was no need for them to lose. Good players are (almost) always lucky though, and they both won.
Have a look here.