WARSAW: Former world champion and Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand got off to a flying start in the Rapid section of the Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland chess tournament on Thursday, registering wins in the first three rounds.
Playing as a wildcard, the Indian chess maestro defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland in the first round, before getting the better of American Wesley So and ended the day one of the tournament with a win over Anton Korobov of Ukraine.
The veteran Indian star took the early lead in the 10-player tournament, which features rapid and blitz games.
Pitted against local player Wojtaszek in the first round, Anand prevailed in 36 moves in a Ruy Lopez game and tamed So in a 30-game affair in the second round.
Against Korobov in the third round, he won in 28 moves in a French Euwe variation game to wrap up a superb first day.
Hungary's Richard Rapport is second behind Anand with a win, a loss and a draw. He beat Kirill Shevchenko of Ukraine, drew with Lev Aronian and lost to Polish Jan-Kryrzstof Duda in the first, second and third rounds respectively.
The event, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour, boasts of a strong field that includes Fabiano Caruana of USA, Aronian, So and Rappor apart from Anand.
After nine rounds of Rapid, the players will take part in a Blitz event over two days with each player coming up against the nine others twice.
