Thursday
May262016
Shamkir, Round 1: Five Draws
Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 11:38PM
Mostly short and bloodless ones at that, but Safarli - Eljanov was a massive exception. Eljanov played the first half of the game brilliantly, and could have converted his winning advantage. Instead he missed his chance, and as getting that chance involved sacrificing material he wound up with a lost position. Fortunately the position was still complicated, and Safarli missed his chance as well.
So everyone is tied for first (and last) going into round 2, which sees the following pairings:
- Giri - Karjakin
- Harikrishna - Mamedyarov
- Eljanov - Caruana
- Hou - Safarli
- Mamedov - Radjabov