Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana Begin FIDE Candidates Tournament with Wins
The event kicked off in Madrid.
The FIDE Candidates Tournament, which will determine Magnus Carlsen's challenger, has begun in the Spanish capital. The total prize fund is € 500,000.
In the first round, Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE) delivered a spectacular attack as Black on the position of the Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren to get a bright victory. Another winner of the day was Fabiano Caruana (USA), who had coherently outplayed his compatriot Hikaru Nakamura. The games Radjabov (Azerbaijan) - Firouzja (France) and Duda (Poland) - Rapport (Hungary) were drawn.
Standings after Round 1:
1-2. Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi - 1
3-6. Alireza Firouzja, Richard Rapport, Teimour Radjabov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda - 0.5
7-8. Ding Liren, Hikaru Nakamura - 0.
Round 2 pairings:
Rapport - Firouzja, Nakamura - Radjabov, Nepomniachtchi - Caruana, Duda - Ding.
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