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.