Fabiano Caruana started with 2.5/3 at the Sigeman & Co tournament in Malmö, Sweden. The Italian grandmaster is in sole first place after beating Anish Giri and Hans TIkkanen with the white pieces and then drawing against Peter Leko with Black. The tournament will last four more rounds and today is a rest day.

Fabiano Caruana, in the lead in Malmö | Photos © Fanny Roos & Calle Erlandsson

Three rounds have been played at this year's Sigeman & Co tournament in Malmö, Sweden. The tournament celebrates its 20-year jubilee edition. It's an 8-player, single round roubin (so 7 rounds) and thanks to additional sponsorship the line-up is stronger than ever before:

1. GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA, 2770)
2. GM Peter Leko (HUN, 2723)
3. GM Li Chao (CHI, 2703)
4. GM Anish Giri (NED, 2693)
5. GM Emanuel Berg (SWE, 2587)
6. GM Hans Tikkanen (SWE, 2566)
7. GM Jonny Hector (SWE, 2560)
8. GM Nils Grandelius (SWE, 2556)

The tournament started with a clash between top players on the FIDE Juniors rating list. The #1 beat the #2:

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Jonny Hector beat Hans Tikkanen with a nice (and relatively simple) attack.

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The draw between Peter Leko and Nils Grandelius, which started as a Sicilian Dragon, was very interesting as well:

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Emanuel Berg was always slightly better against Li Chao, but this game also ended in a draw eventually.

In the second round Fabiano Caruana won his second white game, against Tikkanen. Where he had started with 1.e4 against Giri, this time the young Italian opened with 1.d4. At an early stage, Tikkanen had his queen's bishop trapped.

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Grandelius beat Berg, whose knights just couldn't find good squares after the opening.

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The next day, Berg bounced back with a good win over his compatriot Hector.

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Like Berg, Giri is back on 50% thanks to a win against Tikkanen. The Swedish GM started with three losses...

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Saturday is the first and only rest day in Malmö. 

At the opening ceremony we see Johan Sigeman shaking hands with Ulf Andersson and on the right there's Anish Giri

Some of the guests in Malmö are representatives of the Tata Steel tournament

A glamourous dinner at the start of the 20th jubilee event

GM Nils Grandelius at the buffet

Swedish GM Emanuel Berg, with an ever-attractive playing style

Fabiano Caruana, one of the most active super GMs around

Li Chao from China, not the only player with this name, but the strongest!

Anish Giri returned to Malmö for the second time

Nils Grandelius at the start of his win against Berg

Jonny Hector, a regular guest in this tournament!

Former World Championship finalist Peter Leko - after this tournament he'll travel to Moscow and do commentary

Hans Tikkanen started badly in Malmö