World Rapid Championships, Day 1 Highlights

And some lowlights, especially for the two-time defending champion.

So many games are being played at the World Rapid Championship - or rather, Championships, as there’s a concurrent women’s event - that one could spend the year looking at all the games. We’ll take a look at a few highlights and lowlights, here, and briefly mention some of the main stories.

The biggest positive story is the success of the Americans, which isn’t so surprising given that the event is held in the United States (in New York City), which gives them both home field advantage (not that most of our best players live in New York City any longer, but it is at least our home country) and - probably most importantly - no jet lag issues. Traveling from 0-3 time zones isn’t such a big deal; traveling 6+ time zones is. Of course, the shoe is often on the other foot, and with chess being such a global game there will always be players in elite events who will suffer the burden of distant travel, jet lag, and finding themselves in a culturally unfamiliar environment. This time around, it’s U.S. players who are the beneficiaries - and so far, they are making the most of it.

In the main event, four players lead with 4.5/5 in this 13-round event: Volodar Murzin (18-years-old, but looks more like 14), Shant Sargsyan (not to be confused with or pronounced like “Sargissian”), and then the two Americans Leinier Dominguez and Daniel Naroditsky. 11 players have 4 points, including (in current tiebreak order) the Americans Sam Sevian, Levon Aronian, Ray Robson, and Hikaru Nakamura; other well-known names in that group are world #4 Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Anish Giri.

The next score group includes still more players from the U.S.: Brandon Jacobson, Alex Lenderman, Sam Shankland, Fabiano Caruana, Mikhail Antipov, and Varuzhan Akobian. Another player with 3.5 points worth mentioning is Denis Lazavik. He merits a mention not only because of his awesome (if slightly misspelled) first name, but because his victim in round five was Magnus Carlsen. The two-time defending champ, top seed, and (arguably) GOAT drew in rounds 1, 3, and 4; won in round 2, and lost in round 5 to finish the first day on 50%. Can he leapfrog the 71 players who are currently ahead of him in the standings? Not likely, but if anyone can do it, he can.

In the women’s event, which is two rounds shorter, there is a single leader after the first day’s four rounds: 15-year-old U.S. IM Alice Lee with a perfect 4-0 score. She survived a crazy game with defending champ Valentina Gunina, winning on time in an equal (but very sharp) position. She’s paired with Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun in the first round of day 2, so if she’s still in first after this round we could be in for a sensation.

There are two more days of rapid, and then the blitz. Happy Holidays! (Here again is the link to a selection of games, with my generally light comments.)