Day one of the London Chess Classic was a treat for fans of schadenfreude; those who prefer to see good chess may have another opinion.
In the first session, Viswanathan Anand blundered against Luke McShane and was quickly in trouble; that turned into "dead" lost after 22 moves. Result? He won. Michael Adams beat Andrei Istratescu relatively cleanly, but Vladimir Kramnik also had something of a "charity" win against Peter Svidler. (Incidentally, that game featured the Arctic Defense - 1.Nf3 g6 2.e4 Nf6!?/?!, which Magnus Carlsen used against Adams 2-3 years ago, if I recall correctly. He got a slightly worse but playable position, but eventually lost.) The game went normally for a while, with the evaluation fluctuating between slightly better for White and equal, but at some point Kramnik missed something and was soon lost. No matter: Svidler played imprecisely, allowing Kramnik to escape, and then 54...Kg6?? blundered the bishop and the game. Finally, Matthew Sadler was winning against Jonathan Rowson, but he too was unable to maintain the advantage and eventually lost. In sum: four decisive results, with three of the winners coming back from lost positions.
In the second session, Boris Gelfand beat Judit Polgar - cleanly - and likewise for Fabiano Caruana against Emil Sutovsky. Sutovsky is a very creative player who loves tactical complications, but Caruana outcalculated him and won convincingly. Gawain Jones and Hikaru Nakamura drew their game after a long fight, with both sides missing winning opportunities. Essentially it was a matter of Nakamura trying to turn a drawish position into something more, and while he did have one chance to win he also gave Jones a couple of chances to collect a full point as well. As for the game between Nigel Short and David Howell, there too both players had chances to win. For Short, it was just a flicker of an opportunity, while Howell had a serious advantage for between a third and a half of the game. There too, however, the game finished in a draw.
In session three, Anand pressed with White against Adams, but the latter defended well and it ended in a correct draw. Likewise in Svidler-Sadler: something went slightly wrong for Svidler in the early middlegame, so he went for an attack that proved good for an exciting perpetual but not more. Kramnik beat Rowson convincingly, but it wasn't as convincing as Kramnik thought until Rowson played 24...Ncxa4(?). McShane had a pull against Istratescu, but it didn't become serious until after 25...f3(?); after that Black was lost. McShane didn't play perfectly, but he did well enough and was completely winning by the time Istratescu blundered into a mate in two.
In the final session of the day, more strange reversals occurred. Polgar had a big, maybe winning advantage against Nakamura, but let him slip away. 28.Rc1? was a serious error, and soon it was only Nakamura who could play for the win. Polgar's position remained tenable for a long time, but eternal defense is hard for everyone - especially with rapid time limits - and she finally broke. Howell-Sutovsky was a salutary warning to everyone who plays against his opponent's time trouble. Howell was down to the increments (10 seconds per move) while Sutovsky had five or six minutes left, but rather than accede to a draw once Howell had reached a pretty safe position Sutovsky kept on pushing, only to blunder (35...Kh8? got the ball rolling, though further inaccuracies were to follow) and lose. Gelfand defeated Jones pretty cleanly, while Short lost a one-sided game that began with 1.b4 and soon saw g4 as well. Caruana let Short make all the weaknesses he wanted, and in due course slaughtered him with his counterattack.
Scoring summary: In group A, Anand and Adams lead with 1.5/2 - or rather, 4 points, as the London Chess Classic is continuing their tradition of using the 3-1-0 scoring system. In group B, Kramnik has 6 points; Rowson(!) is in second with 3. Gelfand leads group C with 6 points, whlie Nakamura is in the second qualifying spot for now with 4. Finally, Caruana has 6 points to lead group D, while Howell is in second with 4.