World Blitz Championship, Day 1: Aronian, Carlsen Lead; Grischuk Not "Destroy[ed] Like a Baby"
At the very top of the World Blitz Championship, slow ratings held true as top seeds Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian finished the first day tied for first with 10/14. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is half a point back, and then tied for fourth and fifth with 8.5 are Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler.
A bit further back is Hikaru Nakamura, who is tied for 7th with 7.5 points. That score is actually an achievement considering how things started. He finished with a four-game winning streak, beating Aronian in the day's final round, but here's how things started:
L (to Carlsen), L, L, W, L, D, W, W, L, L for a painful 3.5/10 start.
Even more painful was the last loss (with White), which was against Alexander Grischuk. Grischuk, you probably recall, was his last round opponent in the Tal Memorial. That game finished in a very painful and costly draw for Nakamura, whose winning chances were lost for good thanks to a serious tactical oversight. After this game, Nakamura tweeted that he would "destroy Grischuk like a baby in the blitz". (He probably forgot to add "in the second cycle".)
It has been a fun event, and once again you can watch the video and listen to the commentary (in Russia) - here. You can scroll to whatever location you like (e.g. Nakamura-Grischuk just after 18:08). As for the tournament table, it's here.
A correction to yesterday's preview post: there are only 20 players and thus only 38 rounds. My understanding is that there will be 14 more rounds tomorrow, and then the final 10 on Thursday.
Reader Comments (9)
conflicting standings at multiple places.... anyone verify the real standings and results? Chessdom and russia chess conflict. I enjoyed watching these live last year but it was played on the weekend not during the week and not at this ridiculous hours either. I hope they get a pgn of the games to release... I'd love to see them.
Results reported differently
According to chessbomb
Pavel-Nakamura 0-1
Grischuk-Nakamura 1/2
Pono-Nakamura 1/2
Sergei-Nakamura 1/2
2.5-1.5
According to russiachess
Pavel-Nakamura 1-0
Grischuk-Nakamura 1-0
Pono-Nakamura 0-1
Sergei-Nakamura 0-1
2-2
Waiting for a legit source like twic.... or the players themselves.
[DM: Russia chess is not only a legit source, it's the source everyone ultimately depends on for the event. The reason chess bomb has things wrong is that some of the boards were wrong. Getting that straightened out will take time, but the results are correct. You can see some of the games for yourself, like the Grischuk-Nakamura game - I gave the website and time location in the post.]
I was watching the games live on webcam. I know grischuk-nakamura was a draw for sure in a rook endgame where naka was up a pawn.
[DM: Maybe you don't know what Grischuk looks like? You can go to the spot on the video that I gave in the post and see for yourself. There's no rook ending, and Grischuk wins.]
Yes, obviously Nakamura meant that he would destroy Grischuk "like a baby" the *second* time they played blitz.
Nakamura-Kramnik http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHrg8Lib0WU
Nakamura-Svidler: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuiKdv6UzkU
Svidler did his usual trick and offered a draw in a winning position.
Oops, sorry, the position is a draw, I just set it up from the wrong side of the board.
Nakamura-Grischuk is Nepomniachtchi-Ponomariov in the Chessbomb live coverage (and vice versa? the latter game was drawn in a rook endgame with white being a pawn up). I don't think that Ponomariov looks like Grischuk, nor does Nepomniachtchi resemble Nakamura ... .
Hello
We can see the game between Nakamura and Carlsen at chessbase.com
My question is that at 1.23 Carlsen touched the bishop first (falling and remplace it) and play the pawn next to the bishop.
There is no touch/play rules in blitz?
Thanks
[DM: Sure, the touch-move rule is the same in tournament blitz as in tournament chess. In both cases, it refers to touching a piece with the intent to move it, which was not at all the case there. A player is not obliged to move a piece he accidentally knocks over. (Btw, you can see the game lots of places, including in the main video on the official site.)]
For those of you in the mood to reminisce with some some mid-1970s radio-friendly schmaltz:
"Talking trash on Twitter,
Now feeling like a fool,
Showing disrespect is breaking all the rules..."
(with apologies to Mary MacGregor)
[DM: Wow, I haven't heard that song in ages! "Schmaltz" is right - and they even turned that song into a dreadful made-for-TV movie, too.]