We all knew it. If Chuky is at his best, there is no better player in the world. I hope he can keep it up.

Today the chess world has been shaken up big time, Carlsen blundered a piece to Vallejo in a won position and most amazingly Anand lost as White to Ivanchuk – Anand never loses until now(seems like) – this will be a big shock to Anand and proves to the world he is actually beatable!

This will make for an exciting tournament indeed! Will Carlsen sort his S**T out and bounce back, will Anand recover from his lose? Ivanchuk and Nakamara will be deadly in this tournament.

Stay tuned...

Vishy Anand might be one of the finest players in the history of chess but there is nothing amazing when a chess genius like Chucky beats a chess genius like Anand even with the black pieces.

Go Chucky Go! Very nice!

it became a huge ,almost winning advantage: did you know it at the board or after using a computer?

Chuky was great, no doubt about that, but Anand's e5 was WAAAAY too risky!

Amazing Chucky!

Good positional fight in Anand-Ivanchuk. White focused on Black's weak f6, and build up an attack on the king side. Black had no good options there, so he just did enough to prevent the immediate break-through, and countered with a precise blow in the center. Uncharacteristically, Anand couldn't change gears on the spot, and played an attacking move that didn't work. With Black controlling the center, the white attack went nowhere, and Ivanchuk kept the pawn.

It's kind of hilarious that, after todays results, Vallejo is ahead of Anand, Carlsen and Nakamura. This highlights a glaring deficiency in the scoring system

The Classical table needs an update I think. Vallejo Pons still showing a zero score.

From now, I expect an aggressive play by Carlsen.

These days there is no world champion but there is winner of world championship. Top 10 are all champions IMO.

Anand -Ivanchuk: major White mistake is of course timid 4.d3?, which issues a passport to 3...f5?! dasher at once. In my childhood chess class the boys were taught 4.d4 f:e 5.N:p N:N 6.p:N c6 7.Nc3 P:B 8.N:e4, whereas the girls 4.d3 for safety reasons.
Another path is 4.Nc3 p:p 5.N:e4 d5 6.N:p p:N 7.Qh5+ g6 8.B:N+ p:B 9.N:g6 Nf6 10.Qe5+ with strong attack in either case.
At last even 4.e:f e4 5.castle p:N 6.Q:p compensates knight by strong threats on 'e' file. Those are the tracks one could expect from World Champion rather than tasteless 4.d3?. A well deserved defeat...

Anand hasn't looked as if he will win this tournament either, it's still very early but he has been fighting to draw his games and created little if anything in his white games except inferior positions. He must play much better than this (both here and in Tal, London, Wijk) to finally get that tournament win. Carlsen has played much better than his score. Pressing hard for the win in a couple of games and then an unfortunate time trouble disaster against Vallejo. Such things happen and if he just keeps playing in the same way as in the first rounds and avoids time trouble he won't do too badly here. Ivanchuk is too uneven to expect anything from, so at the moment maybe Aronian is a good bet but I wouldn't rule out Carlsen this early.

I didn't like Vallejo's play at all. Unbelievable that he got 3 points for it. Chess can be so unfair...

"The next time you blunder a piece, you can at least find comfort in the fact that it happens to the best - the very best."
Last time I blundered a piece, I was thinking about Carlsen-Giri 0-1, Tata 2011 :)

Anand's mistake may be his ambitious 22.e5 which may have been prompted by this favorite-player-promoter football scoring system. The move was interesting nevertheless. His OTB play was brilliant afterwards. He almost drew the game except for some inaccuracies when he is down to last few minutes. I wouldn't be concerned about Anand play merely going by the result.

The live rating list shows Carlsen ahead of Anand, Aronian, Kramnik and Ivanchuk. No disrespect to any other player, but in terms of pure playing strength, diversity of styles, personality and a respectful attitude this may be the most attractive top 5 ever (although there is no attacking monster like Topalov).