Dutch destroyer Jorden Van Foreest came close to felling top seed Wesley So in a start to the knockouts that came full of fire.

The 22-year-old threw everything at his American opponent and inflicted a crushing 19-move win over him in Game 2.

But it was not enough to take the lead as the super-solid So hit back and then kept Van Foreest at bay in the final game - just - to escape Day 1 with a 2-2 draw.

Van Foreest and So will go into battle again with everything resting on a one-match shootout and tiebreaks if necessary.

So said afterwards: "It was really a very bad day for me, or maybe Jorden just played really very well."

In the other quarters, Armenia's Levon Aronian wrestled the advantage from Azerbaijan's Shakrhiyar Mamedyarov with a classy 2.5-0.5 win with a game to spare.

Aronian must now be considered the hot favourite to progress today.

Vietnam's Liem Quang Le won two games to take the first match against 18-year-old hotshot Alireza Firouzja. The youngster will fire back today.

Liem said he was better prepared for the Tour after coming into this event "fresh and ready for the fight".

The match between speed demon Hikaru Nakamura and Vladislav Artemiev, the runner-up in the Goldmoney Asian Rapid, ended in four draws.

Nakamura had a big chance to get a win in Game 3 but missed it. They resume with everything resting on a simple shootout today.

The knockouts continue tomorrow. Kick-off is at 17:00 CEST.

All matches in the Chessable Masters are hosted in chess24.com’s playzone and available to watch on the platform’s Twitch and YouTube channels for free.

The Chessable Masters is the penultimate leg of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour before the Finals event in San Francisco, where the ultimate winner will be crowned the world’s best online chess player.

For further information, please contact:

Leon Watson, PR for Play Magnus Group
leon@chessable.com
+44 7786 078 770