Carlsen loses to Esipenko, Nepo on Day 1 of the Champions Chess Tour 2022
The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2022 started on Saturday the 19th of February, with a new format, and 16 elite players competing for 9 titles, the crown of the overall Tour Champion, and $1.6 million! On Day 1, the World Champion Magnus Carlsen suffered 2 terrible losses, and is currently No.11 in the standings.
Carlsen kicked off the day with a comfortable and noodly (!) win against the promising Russian GM, Vladislav Artemiev.
The next round found the World Champion struggling against the 17-year-old and recent World Rapid Champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Eventually Carlsen managed to achieve a narrow escape and move to round 3 with half a point shorter.
Next up was Andrey Esipenko, who won the Norwegian GM at the 2021 Tata Steel Tournament, and was recently very close to moving to the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix finals, but missed his chance against Nakamura. Their game was shaky, with the Russian GM fully exploiting all the winning opportunities that Carlsen “gifted” him and achieving an – once more- fascinating win against the World Champion. GM David Howell called the game “a masterpiece of strategic dominance”!
But the disappointment for Carlsen didn’t stop there, as in Round 4 he faced Nepo’s “revenge”! The defeated World Title Challenge made a strong comeback with his win against Carlsen, and his third win in a row on Day 1. After their match Nepo humbly stated: “I have nothing to be proud of”!
After the shocking 1.5/4 score, Carlsen is 11th on the standing board with Twitter wondering if that was his worst Tour start ever! As it seems, Carlsen is the star of his own show, but for all the wrong reasons this time!
The event will continue on Sunday, February 20, at 6PM CET, and you can watch it on the World Chess broadcasting page.
