Anish Giri leads the Magnus Carlsen Invitational after day 1 of the preliminaries - Day 1

Anish Giri had a stellar first day of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational leading with 4/5. 8 of the 16 players will progress to the second knockout phase. This event is one of the "Majors" on the Champions Chess Tour. Initially the plan was to have just 12 players for this event but after too many draws in the last Major preliminary section where 8 of 12 players went through and draws were rewarded they added more. This definitely added to the number of decisive games on day 1 here.

Giri started draws against Teimour Radjabov and Alireza Firouzja before beating Alan Pichot, Carlsen and Wesley So. Carlsen said he became overly ambitious after a comfortable opening and So brought home the point nicely. So had a second loss of the day with white after a poor opening led to seeking him seeking complications which Giri immediately refuted. Carlsen finished in joint second with Levon Aronian on 3.5/5. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov makes his debut on the tour - he has largely confined his chess to online blitz events and looked likely to be in a share of the lead after starting with 3/4 before being beaten by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in round 5. Teimour Radjabov, MVL, Nakamura and Dubov are tied 5th-8th in the qualifying places. Alireza Firouzja and Wesley So are on 50% with 2.5/5, the dangerous Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin only managed to scored 1.5.

Rounds 6-10 on Sunday 14th March starting at 4pm.

1st Giri 4pts, 2nd-3rd Carlsen, Aronian 3.5pts, 4th-8th Mamedyarov, MVL, Radjabov, Dubov, Nakamura 3pts, 9th-10th So, Firouzja 2.5pts 11th Van Foreest 2pts, 12th-15th Nepomniachtchi, Anton Guijarro, Grandelius, Karjakin 1.5pts, 16th Pichot 1pt