One of the most enjoyable events of the year got underway today - or rather, yesterday, given its location in Almaty, Kazakhstan - the World Rapid Championships. This will go for two more days, and then the World Blitz Championships follow. The first five rounds of this 13-round 15’+10” event took place today, and there are still four leaders: Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Fedoseev, Arjun Erigaisi, and Jorden Van Foreest, each with 4.5 points.
There are 178 players, so plenty of players are hot on their heels. Ten players have four points, including such stars as Anish Giri, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Nihal Sarin, defending champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Ian Nepomniachtchi (who might be the next World Chess Champion). The group with three and a half points is even larger and includes Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Grischuk, and…it goes on and on. It’s a ridiculously strong tournament, though there are some notable absences: Ding Liren (who will face Nepo for the World Championship title in a few months) and Alireza Firouzja are probably the most prominent of the lot, and Wesley So’s absence is noteworthy as well.
In an event of this size there will be many remarkable games, and I’ve picked out a few that caught my eye; no doubt many that deserved to be covered are missing. (An omission the readers are invited to rectify: please include in the comments games you found especially notable.) Have a look, here.