Five players ended day 1 of the World Rapid Championship sharing first place with 4½/5 points. Magnus Carlsen, who assessed his play on the first day as “so-so”, heads the leading pack, which also includes Yu Yangyi, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi and Ivan Cheparinov. In the women’s section, Zhu Jiner and Nurgyul Salimova are sharing first place with perfect 4/4 scores. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes
A few major upsets left rating favourites out of the World Cup in the first round of the multitudinous competition. In the open category, Gianmarco Leiva (Peru) and Pablo Salinas (Chile) gave the biggest surprises. In the women’s section, Qianyun Gong (Singapore), Turmunkh Munkhzul (Mongolia) and Maili-Jade Ouellet (Canada) pulled off the biggest stunners. | Pictured: Nurgyul Salimova | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
The tenth edition of the much-anticipated FIDE World Cup kicked off on Sunday in Baku. The 50 top seeds in the open and the 25 top seeds in the women’s section received byes and will join the fray on Wednesday. The remaining 234 contenders (156 in the open and 78 in the women’s) played their first classical encounters, though. There was no lack of surprises on the first day of action, with 14-year-old Ediz Gurel from Turkey (the youngest participant in the open) stunning Velimir Ivic in brilliant style. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
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Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna drew with Woman FIDE Master Umida Omonova of Uzbekistan to remain in striking distance with the big guns after nine rounds of the 17-round Women's World Blitz Chess Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan Thursday, Dec. 29.
The split sent the country’s top female w