King's Tournament Round 1 Report

3rd Seed Vassily Ivanchuk leads the King's Tournament after a round 1 win

The 2012 King's Chess Tournament is taking place in Bucharest, Romania from 11/7-13.  It is a 6 round, 4-player double round robin with an average FIDE rating of 2746.5 (Category 20!).  No draw offers are allowed before move 30.  Time control: 40/120, 20/60, SD/15, inc/30 from move 60.

Schedule:
Wednesday, November 7 - Round 1
Thursday, November 8 - Round 2
Friday, November 9 - Round 3
Saturday, November 10 - Free Day
Sunday, November 11 - Round 4
Monday, November 12 - Round 5
Tuesday, November 13 - Round 6

The players:
World #5 Fabiano Caruana (2786, Italy) - 2012 Grand Slam Final Co-Champion
#8 Veselin Topalov (2769, Bulgaria) - 2005-6 FIDE World Champion
#11 Vassily Ivanchuk (#9 on the Live Rankings as of 11/7, 2763, Ukraine) - 2012 Capablanca Memorial
#84 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2668, Romania) - the local hero

Today's Round 1 pairings (replay games at the official site)
Topalov - Caruana - 1/2
Ivanchuk - Nisipeanu - 1-0

Topalov - Caruana was a 60-move Grünfeld (D90) which moved towards an equal Rook and Knight endgame into an eventual Rook endgame that ended in a repetition.

Ivanchuk - Nisipeanu was a 49-move Classical Nimzo-Indian (E32) in which Ivanchuk was able to win an opposite-color bishop endgame with two extra pawns.

Standings after Round 1:
1. Ivanchuk 1.0
2-3. Caruana, Topalov 0.5
4. Nisipeanu 0.0

Live Rating Changes after Round 1:
Ivanchuk: +3.7 to 2766.7 after defeating Nisipeanu (moves up 2 places to to #9, passing Grischuk and Mamedyarov
Topalov: +0.2 to 2769.2 after drawing Caruana
Caruana: -0.2 to 2785.8 after drawing Topalov
Nisipeanu: -3.7 to 2664.3 after losing to Ivanchuk (drops 4 places to to #88, passed by Fridman, Gupta and Potkin)

Tomorrow's Round 2 pairings:
Caruana - Nisipeanu
Topalov - Ivanchuk

Stay posted for reports after Round 3, Round 5, and at the conclusion of the tournament.