Magnus Carlsen played the Catalan whereupon Ponomariov replied with a very solid system. White's space advantage was nullified with the timely moves ...f5 and ...h5.
Nisipeanu played fairly positionally against Radjabov's Sveshnikov and was ready to pounce once the position opened up.
| Gelfand Boris | 2752 | 1-0 | Wang Yue | 2752 | 82 | Slav Chebanenko |
| Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter | 2672 | 1-0 | Radjabov Teimour | 2740 | 39 | Sicilian Sveshnikov |
| Carlsen Magnus | 2813 | 0.5-0.5 | Ponomariov Ruslan | 2733 | 31 | Catalan opening |
The longest game was Gelfand's win over Wang Yue. The position was very blocked but the Israeli was able to gradually organize a breakthrough on the kingside. After various deft tactical points he emerged a pawn up in an endgame, an advantage which he duly converted.
Here is a table which emphasizes the high level of the event:
| Name | Country | Rating | Expected rating change | World Ranking | points |
| Boris Gelfand | ISR | 2741 | -9 | 11 | 1 |
| Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu | ROU | 2672 | +11 | 59 | 1 |
| Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 2813 | - | 1 | 0.5 |
| Ruslan Ponomariov | UKR | 2733 | -4 | 18 | 0.5 |
| Wang Yue | CHN | 2752 | +3 | 8 | 0 |
| Teimour Radjabov | AZE | 2740 | - | 13 | 0 |
It's early days but in such an event it's always important for the lowest ranking player to get off to a good start.
The tournament is in fact a double round robin over ten rounds with a classical time limit of 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in an hour, and then 15 minutes with an incremental 30 seconds from move 60.
The so-called Sofia rule (i.e. no draws by mutual consent before 30 moves) is in force. Ponomariov getting his draw offer in on move 31!
The games can be followed live at 1.30 pm (London), 2.30 pm (Paris) or 3.30 pm local time.
For this possibility and other information see the Official site
