Day 1 of the Airthings Masters, the second leg of the Champions Chess tour, saw only 7 decisive outcomes in 24 games. Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Daniil Dubov, Teimour Radjabov, and Wesley So, all scored +1 (2½ out of 4) and now are tied for first place.
Alexander Grishuk, Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Pentala Harikrishna are sitting on 2 points just a half-point behind the top five. Even the worst performers of Day 1 Anish Giri and David Anton are trailing the leaders only by 1½ and still have a chance to make it into top-8 and qualify for the next stage.
The $200,000 event features a 3-day preliminary battle, with only the top 8 players going through to the knockout stages that continue into the New Year. The participants play each other once at 15-minute rapid chess, with a 10-second increment after each move. The first prize is not only $60,000, double that on offer for the Skilling Open, but direct entry to the Grand Final next September.
Official website: championschesstour.com/