King Salman World Chess Rapid Championship begins

King Salman World Rapid Championship Day 1

The King Salman World Rapid Championship started yesterday at the iconic Apex Convention Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Players from 55 countries, among them 10 men out of the World Top-15 as well as 11 out the World Top-15 women, are competing in this prestigious event.

Indian Participants include Five-time World Champion GM Anand Viswanathan, GM Harikrishna P. GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, GM Sethuraman S.P., GM Harika Dronavalli, IM Padmini Rout, IM Eesha Karavade, and IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman.

The honorary first move in the round 1 game Carlsen-Bu was made by Mr. Kosay A.Alfawaz, Advisor to H.E. The Chairman of General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia.

In the very same game, Bu Xiangzhi stunned the world’s top rated player Magnus Carlsen by inflicting him yet another loss. Only a few months ago, Bu eliminated Carlsen from the FIDE World Cup in Tbilisi.

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Viswanathan Anand had a solid start, he is placed half-a-point behind the four joint leaders. Round two and four particularly stand out , Anand displayed his world-class expertise to crush his two Grandmaster opponents.

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B. Adhiban and Vidit Gujarati have two points each, while P. Harikrishna is on 1.5. Surya Shekhar Ganguly and S.P. Sethuraman have a point each.

In the women’s event, Harika, is on 2.5 points, half-a-point behind leaders China’s Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie and Bela Khotenashvili of Georgia.

The King Salman World Rapid Championship has ten more rounds to be played and continues until 28th December.

Official Website

Pairings: Open Championship

Round 6 on 2017/12/27

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	44	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2685	3½		3½	GM	Carlsen Magnus *)	2908	1
2	8	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2771	4½		4½	GM	Jobava Baadur	2672	54
3	63	GM	Kuzubov Yuriy	2662	4		4	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2813	5
4	12	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2758	4		4	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2673	52
5	86	GM	Fressinet Laurent	2612	4		4	GM	Rapport Richard	2748	17
6	18	GM	Svidler Peter	2743	4		4	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2694	38
7	32	GM	Wang Yue	2702	3½		4	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2610	87
8	46	GM	Bortnyk Olexandr	2683	3½		3½	GM	Wang Hao	2770	9
9	16	GM	Onischuk Vladimir	2748	3½		3½	GM	Alekseev Evgeny	2681	47
10	20	GM	Ding Liren	2734	3½		3½	GM	Leko Peter	2671	55

Pairings: Women’s Championship

Round 6 on 2017/12/27

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	6	GM	Tan Zhongyi	2502	4		5	GM	Ju Wenjun	2537	4
2	11	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	2467	4		4	IM	Guo Qi	2451	16
3	24	GM	Khotenashvili Bela	2425	4		4	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2466	12
4	13	WGM	Goryachkina Aleksandra	2460	4		4	IM	Padmini Rout	2409	28
5	7	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2497	3½		4	IM	Pham Le Thao Nguyen	2390	36
6	2	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2586	3½		3½	GM	Sebag Marie	2445	20
7	3	GM	Gunina Valentina	2566	3½		3½	IM	Batsiashvili Nino	2400	30
8	23	IM	Abdumalik Zhansaya	2439	3½		3½	GM	Ushenina Anna	2482	8
9	37	WGM	Girya Olga	2390	3½		3½	GM	Danielian Elina	2473	10
10	15	WGM	Huang Qian	2453	3½		3½	WGM	Mamedjarova Turkan	2286	75