Bengaluru: World No.1 Magnus Carlsen had a torrid start to the World Rapid and Blitz Championship – losing in one round and escaping with draws from the jaws of defeat, in two others to end Day 1 of the rapid event at 2.5/5. Five rounds were played on Day 1 in New York, with eight more rounds to be played over Friday and Saturday.

Among Indians, Raunak Sadhwani and Arjun Erigaisi were the best performers, finishing Day 1 with 4/5. Raunak remained unbeaten, stunning world No.7 Alireza Firouzja. The French-Iranian GM playing White, chose not to go for a knight sacrifice (21.Nxf7) which would have given him a significant advantage. Arjun, who needs to win the event to top the Fide Circuit and qualify for the 2026 Candidates tournament, suffered one loss in round 3 but managed to win the remaining games. World No.2 Fabiano Caruana, who currently leads the Fide circuit, finished at 3.5/5.

The upset of the day was Carlsen losing to 18-year Denis Lazavik with the Black pieces. After escaping lost positions in round 3 and 4, the former world champion’s luck ran out in the day’s final round. Carlsen’s kingside pawn rush ended up being counterproductive and he was soon down a pawn with no compensation in sight. Lazavik had little trouble converting his advantage. The loss saw Carlsen ending the first day at a 50 percent score.

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, who is in New York, spoke of the format of the tournament working well to the strengths of Carlsen. “If you take a very broad view, my feeling is that the percentages work for him. He makes the fewest serious blunders and it’s just this consistency – reasonably good moves. They may not be the best moves, or even the second-best moves but they’re never going to be the worst moves. That strength is magnified in tournaments with more rounds and when they’re all on one day, because he’s very fit. So, this kind of event suits him very well. The longer it is, in fact, he does better. He can often fall behind in the first few rounds…but by the end, there he is!”

At the end of Day 1, the open section had four co-leaders at 4.5 points – Volodar Murzin, Shant Sargsyan, Leiner Dominguez Perez and Daniel Naroditsky.

In the women’s section, America’s 15-year-old Alice Lee had a flawless 4/4 start with Harika Dronavalli being the only Indian player among the chasing pack of five half a point behind at 3.5/4. She was placed fourth in the standings after Day 1. Seven more rounds remain to be played in the women’s section of the rapid event.