Paris Rapid: Carlsen & Nakamura Tied After Day 1
Friday, June 10, 2016 at 1:06AM
Dennis Monokroussos in Paris Rapid & Blitz

Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura each scored 3.5/5 - translating into 7/10, as the rapid games count double (presumably the point is that the later blitz games will count singly). That 7/10 score puts them a point ahead of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So; two points ahead of Vladimir Kramnik; three points ahead of Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Laurent Fressinet, and Anish Giri; and four points ahead of Veselin Topalov (who had the further indignity of losing his individual game with Kramnik, and with the white pieces). The rapid portion of the contest will finish today (Friday).

Carlsen could have had 9/10 (4.5/5), but in an unloseable position in round 1 he got distracted deciding between two winning continuations and lost on time to So. Another bit of (sort of) bad luck is that his usual customer - Nakamura - "forgot" to lose to him and drew pretty comfortably. They'll meet twice more in the blitz, and it should not be forgotten that Nakamura has beaten Carlsen in blitz tournaments. It could happen again, and if it does that might help him overcome his woes against the world champion in classical events. Time will tell.

Article originally appeared on The Chess Mind (http://www.thechessmind.net/).
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