Casablanca Chess: Carlsen takes lead, Nakamura second on opening day in Morocco

With three rounds remaining, Nakamura is second, on 1.5 points, after beating Bassem and drawing with Anand and Carlsen. Anand and Bassem have one point each.

Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen at the Casablanca Chess tournament at Casablanca, Morocco. | Photo Credit: Lennart Ootes/FIDE

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen posted two wins and a draw to take the lead on the opening day of the Casablanca Chess tournament at Casablanca, Morocco, on Saturday.

In the unique event, in which the players are given certain positions from games played in advance, Carlsen defeated Viswanathan Anand and Hikaru Nakamura and drew with Amin Bassem.

With three rounds remaining, Nakamura is second, on 1.5 points, after beating Bassem and drawing with Anand and Carlsen. Anand and Bassem have one point each.

Among the positions featured on the opening day was from the game between Mikhail Chigori and Wilhelm Steinitz from their 1889 World Championship and that between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov from the 1985 World Championship.

“It’s a fun format,” said Carlsen after the games. “I think what happened in the second game (with Bassem) was a bit of a shame as it all liquidated to a draw pretty quickly.”