Round 1 is now history, and it was a good one for the rating favorites. Sometimes players need a few rounds to warm up, so it’s often the best time for the underdogs to strike. Many of the underdogs had the white pieces as well - even better. Unfortunately for them, the big dogs were ready, and the favorites showed that they were favorites for a reason.
Ding Liren had Black against Vidit Gujrathi, and my impression without checking the clock times is that Ding’s prep was excellent. Maybe Vidit had a small chance for an edge on move 21, but other than that Ding had no trouble and made an easy draw.
Almost-champ Ian Nepomniachtchi did even better with Black, albeit against a considerably weaker opponent. Max Warmerdam didn’t find the best way to deal with Black’s pressure against g2, and his attempt to cut out attacking ideas with …h4 by playing 21.Rd4 followed by 22.Rh4 failed. Nepo had too many attacking ideas, and Warmerdam gave up after Nepo’s 29th move.
Alireza Firouzja also won with Black, against Jorden Van Foreest. The game was “equal” until two moves before the end, but as usual paying slavish attention to the engine’s evaluations can be misleading. Van Foreest’s margin for error had been shrinking, so while choosing the right 36th move and working out the problem with the move he chose was far from impossible for a player of his level, it may not have been trivial either, especially if time trouble was involved. Firouzja seized his opportunity and won.
Also winning: Anish Giri, again with Black, against Ju Wenjun. In the other games Black won, White never had anything to speak of, but there was a point when Black was in some trouble. Nevertheless he escaped, reached a better but objectively drawn rook ending, and ground away. The women’s world champion almost immediately made a decisive error, and Giri joined the winner’s circle.
The fourth winner was Wei Yi, who defeated Alexander Donchenko in a sort of Anti-Gruenfeld-turned-Modern Benoni. An interesting and roughly balanced middlegame immediately went Black’s way when Donchenko went for the rash exchange sac with 19.Rxd4. It looked like a blitz move to me, and indeed, with the leisure of a classical time control Wei Yi was able to neutralize White’s compensation and win the endgame.
The other two games were drawn. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa had the upper hand in a sharp Najdorf against Parham Maghsoodloo, but couldn’t keep control in the messy middlegame. Dommarju Gukesh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov played a practically perfect game; my suspicion (though I could of course be wrong) is that much of the game was worked out beforehand in both players’ preparation.
Today’s games, with my notes, are here; here are the round 2 pairings:
Abdusattorov (.5) - Praggnanandhaa (.5)
Nepomniachtchi (1) - Ju Wenjun (0)
Giri (1) - Vidit (.5)
Wei Yi (1) - Gukesh (.5)
Firouzja (1) - Maghsoodloo (.5)
Ding Liren (.5) - Donchenko (0)
Van Foreest (0) - Warmerdam (0)
Jorden van Foreest had 21 minutes (plus increments) left for 5 moves until the time control and spent just 21 seconds on 36.Nd4?? (two question marks seem warranted for a move that loses immediately).
"paying slavish attention to the engine’s evaluations can be misleading" - yes, in some situations. Here I would say that the only move 36.Kd3 wasn't much more tricky to find and assess than a forced recapture (only one [good] way) or obviously only one good way to get out of a check. If you visualize the position after 36.Nd4, all you have to realize is that the attacked black bishop doesn't have to capture on g2 (chess isn't checkers) but can also go to e4 ruling out the probable whit intention "Kd3 will be next".