Casablanca Chess: Carlsen takes lead on opening day

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen leads Casablanca Chess tournament with two wins and a draw on opening day.

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 already in the past, Carlsen defeated Viswanathan Anand and Hikaru Nakamura and drew with Amin Bassem.

With three rounds remaining Nakamura was in second place, on 1.5 points, after beating Bassem and drawing with Anand and Carslen. Anand and Bassem had 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 match. Another position was from the 1985 World championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov.

“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.”