Carlsen leads the Opera Euro Rapid Preliminaries after day 1 - Day 1

Magnus Carlsen leads the preliminary section of the Opera Euro Rapid after day one alone in spite of losing in round 1 to Wesley So. The round 1 result was worrying for Carlsen fans following a major slump in form going back to the start of December. Carlsen said after the day's play "I wouldn't say the funk is over or anything but" .... "this was in general a very enjoyable day of chess." Carlsen said he played for a win in every game, including the first where he was well beaten by So. Carlsen beat Levon Aronian, Matthias Bluebaum, Sam Shankland and Leinier Dominguez (where for one move Carlsen was lost according to the computer with 28.Rd4 - impossible to calculate at this time control).

Carlsen is half a point clear of Wesley So who after his win in round 1 lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in Round 2, beat Daniil Dubov in Round 3, Drew Levon Aronian in Round 4 and beat Matthias Bluebaum in Round 5. Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Hikaru Nakamura in Round 5 to join So in joint second on 3.5 points. MVL, Anish Giri and the only undefeated player - winner of the last tour event - Teimour Radjabov are tied on 3 points. All in all an interesting first day.

The top 8 after 15 rounds go through to the knockout phase.

Day 1 Round 5 standings: 1st Carlsen 4pts; 2nd-3rd Wesley So, Nepomniachtchi 3.5pts; 4th-6th MVL, Giri, Radjabov 3pts; 7th-10th Nakamura, Duda, Aronian, Shankland 2.5pts; 11th-13th Vidit, Grischuk, Dubov2pts; 14th-15th Ding Liren, Bluebaum 1.5pts; 16th Dominguez Perez 1pt.

Day 2 Rounds 6-10 start at 4pm GMT.