World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen was paired against all four of his toughest rivals on Day 1 of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge but almost took the sole lead with 3.5/4. That would have been some statement, but a missed win against Hikaru Nakamura meant that Hikaru, Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin all matched him in the lead on 3/4. Wei Yi blundered into mate-in-1, but at least he has company in last place on 1/4: Duda, Dubov and Firouzja are all also in danger of leaving the tournament on Thursday.
Check out Pascal Charbonneau’s Aftershow:
Magnus almost crushes it
At the drawing of lots before the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge lightning struck twice. For the second time in a row in his Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour the World Champion was randomly allocated the no. 1 seeding number, and in this case it meant that on Day 1 (of 3) of the preliminary stage he’d play all four of the next highest rated players in the event. He was also picked to have White in three of the four games…
