The top seeds generally have a relatively easy time of things in the/their first round of the World Cup, but not this year. More than half have advanced after the classical games, including three of the top four seeds (Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, and Ian Nepomniachtchi). But (if I counted correctly) eight of the 2700s will have to go through tiebreaks tomorrow, including the second, fifth, and sixth seeds (Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, and Wesley So, respectively). And three 2700s are gone: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Sam Shankland are finished - all three losing with the white pieces. (Shankland’s self-destruction happened yesterday, the other two stumbled today.)
There were other upsets down the line, but let’s note a special accomplishment: Dommaraju Gukesh, still just 17-years-old, broke into the top 10 (#9, to quote the Beatles) with the second win in his 2-0 match victory over Misratdin Iskandrov. He’s a beast.
There are still too many games and players to cover everything, so just a few more tidbits.
Let’s tally the U.S. players: Caruana, Nakamura, So, and Shankland have already been covered, and among the rest Leinier Dominguez won 2-0 vs. Igor Janik, Ray Robson defeated Alexandr Fier 1.5-0.5, and Awonder Liang (a very slight favorite) has drawn both games with Mustafa Yilmaz and will go to tiebreaks.
Sentimental favorite Boris Gelfand lost with White to Ferenc Berkes in the second game of their match and was eliminated.
In the Women’s World Cup, Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun has drawn the classical games vs. Eva Repkova, and will need to win in tiebreaks tomorrow to keep alive her hopes of qualifying for the Candidates, to perhaps go on to earn the the right to play a match against herself.
Also in the Women’s World Cup, two big favorites are going to tiebreaks after losing the second game against underdogs: Alexandra Kosteniuk and American Irina Krush. Happily, the other American in the field, Carissa Yip, came back from a loss in the first game to Xue Zhao to force tiebreaks.
A small selection of games (including Carlsen’s attractive finish against Pantsulaia), with my comments, is here.