Dubai: Top seed Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, GM Michael Adams of England and GM Richard Rapport of Hungary grabbed the early lead after beating first round opponents in the Fide Sharjah Grand Prix at the Sharjah Chess Club on Saturday.
Vachier-Lagrave crushed the Petroff Defence of GM Li Chao of China in 50 moves. Adams used the English opening against local hero GM Salem A.R. Saleh of the UAE, uncorked a combination on the 34th move to capture the queen of the Emirati and force a resignation on the 60th move. The other Chinese GM also fell in the first round as Ding Liren succumbed to Richard Rapport in 40 moves.
The other six matches were drawn. Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia halved the point with Levon Aronian of Armenia in only 22 moves of a Guioco Piano game; Hikaru Nakamura of the USA drew with Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia in 60 moves of an English opening; Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain drew with Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in only 23 moves.
Alexander riazantsev of Russia drew with Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine in 32 moves of a Nimzoindian defence. Women’s world champion Hou Yifan of China drew with Ian Nepomnianchtchi of Russia in 43 moves of a Sicilian defense while Alexander Grischuk of Russia drew with Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway in 41 moves of an English opening.
The tournament is a nine-round Swiss system with games starting 3 pm daily at the Sharjah Chess Club. The Grand Prix has 24 players, each of whom will play in three of the four tournaments. The two players with the most points at the end qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship.
The next leg will be in Moscow from May 11to 22, then in Geneva from July 5 to 16 and, finally, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, from November 15 to 26. Each Grand Prix has 18 players and a prize fund of 130,000 euros. The Grand Prix will be broadcast exclusively on the site WorldChess.com, which is owned by Agon. Results and standings are in chess-results.com.
