Tata Steel Chess 2019 Round 1: Anand and Nepomniachtchi open with wins

The first elite chess event of the year, Tata Steel Chess, went underway in the Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee on Saturday. After a nail-biting first round, Viswanathan Anand and Ian Nepomniachtchi turned out to be the two victors of the day. Magnus Carlsen showed some enterprising chess in the premier matchup against Ding Liren but was unable to secure a win. Teimur Radjabov, on the other hand, was a heartbeat away from winning his opening clash against Vladimir Kramnik but the former world champ managed to wriggle out with a draw. Meanwhile, Parham Maghsoodloo found his king checkmated in the top game of the challenger's group against Anton Korobov. Evgeny Bareev also made the most of R Praggnanandhaa's errors to open with a win. Erwin l'Ami and Maksim Chigaev started with wins on the first day. Round 1 report.