In Belgrade, Serbia, the second leg of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix started today, March 1. GM John Burke wrote a preview article for the ICC. Today, Round 1 of the pools. With four decisive games, it was an interesting day of chess.

 

 Pool A 1 2 3 4 PTS Grischuk aa   0   0.0 Shankland   aa   1/2 0.5 Andreikin 1   aa   1.0 Bacrot   1/2   aa 0.5

 

In Pool A, Andreikin won a nice game with Grishuk, in a sort of upset, being Sasha the favorite of the pool. It's six rounds, but this loss by Sasha could mean he's out of the contention for one of the two coveted spots in the Candidates later this year. Andreikin sacrificed his Queen in a spectacular way, to win convincingly.

 

Bacrot and Shankland drew.

 

 Pool B 1 2 3 4 PTS Giri aa     1 1.0 Harikrishna   aa 0   0.0 Vitiugov   1 aa   1.0 Tabatabaei 0     aa 0.0

In Pool B we had two decisive results. Giri defeated the young Iranian GM Tabatabaei.  

 

Nikita Vitiugov won against Harikrishna.  

 

 Pool C 1 2 3 4 PTS Rapport aa 1/2     0.5 Fedoseev 1/2 aa     0.5 Vidit     aa 1 1.0 Shirov   0   aa 0.0

In Pool C Rapport and Fedoseev drew, and Visit defeated Shirov.  

 

 Pool D 1 2 3 4 PTS Mamedyarov aa 1/2     0.5 Yu Yangyi 1/2 aa     0.5 Vachier-Lagrave     aa 1/2 0.5 Predke   1/2   aa 0.5

Pool D is considered the most difficult by GM John Burke and by the people on Twitter: Today both games were drawn. Tomorrow, March 2, the second round of the pools, at 9 AM EST - 15:00 Belgrade, 14:00 UTC.