Name: Hou Yifan
Age: 23
Country: China
World ranking: No. 110
Name: Magnus Carlsen
Age: 26
Country: Norway
World ranking: No. 1
Name: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Age: 26
Country: France
World ranking: No. 5
Name: Georg Meier
Age: 29
Country: Germany
World ranking: No. 154
Name: Fabiano Caruana
Age: 24
Country: USA
World ranking: No. 3
Name: Matthias Bluebaum
Age: 19
Country: Germany
World ranking: No. 148
Name: Arkadij Naiditsch
Age: 29
Country: Azerbaijan
World ranking: No. 49
Name: Levon Aronian
Age: 34
Country: Armenia
World ranking: No. 9
This year, the GRENKE Chess Classic is a hard-fought event with a lot of decisive games. After the third round, Hou Yifan is still in the lead with 2,5 points after she drew her game against world champion Magnus Carlsen. There were three decisive results in the other games, though. Levon Aronian won a good technical game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana played a wild tactical game against Georg Meier and Arkadij Naiditsch won against Matthias Blübaum. The three winners of today have two points after three rounds.
Our highlight-video of the 2nd round of the GRENKE Chess Classic.
Read more: Highlight-video - 2nd round of the GRENKE Chess Classic
Today the GRENKE Chess Classic has begun. This year the chess event in Karlsruhe turned into a unique chess festival. We produced a highlight video of round 1 for you.
A perfect start of the GRENKE Chess Classic 2017 for Hou Yifan. The best female chess player in the world also won her second game. She is the sole leader of the tournament with two points. Fabiano Caruana came back with a win over Arkadij Naiditsch, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won his first game of the event with a win against Matthias Blübaum. Magnus Carlsen had some good chances against Levon Aronian but had to be content with his second draw oft he tournament.
The first round of the GRENKE Chess Classic gave us a number of surprises. Especially the win of Hou Yifan against Caruana made a great stir. Another surprise was the win by Naiditsch with the black pieces against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. In the other two games, the two German players showed a good performance. Matthias Blübaum defended a slightly worse position against Magnus Carlsen and Georg Meier showed his class when he accepted a draw in a slighty better position against Levon Aronian.
Read more: Favourites stumble at the start of the GRENKE Chess Classic
