After the Blitz fireworks, we were expecting a somewhat calm first round, but after three hours of play today it looked pretty grim, with all the five games headed to draw. Until Giri missed his chance to draw Nakamura in an endgame that - quite incredibly - they had already played a year ago! Nakamura went for the kill, with his unmistakable style, and with the win also took the early lead of the super-tournament.  

The other game that was of some interest, Kramnik vs. Karjakin, saw Kramnik open 1.e4, confirming that today Vlad the Terrible is playing virtually everything.    

 

Ronen shows us the salient points of the games in his excellent recap.  

Tomorrow again - and it couldn't be otherwise - exciting pairings: Nakamura vs. Aronian Giri vs. Karjakin Caruana vs. Carlsen Anand vs. Kramnik Wesley So vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

10 AM EDT - 16:00 CET - 15:00 UK.