It's been a really interesting start to the tournament with only with only 8 draws across the 123 pairings that were scheduled today! Reigning champion GM Marcin Tazbir won his game against Aleksandr Zhakov of Kyrgyzstan. IM Igor Yarmonov of Ukraine also won his match against Rolando Gamboa Mora of Costa Rica. Polish WFM Anna Stolarczyk defeated Turkish player Altas Seltman. American player Griffin McConnell scored a point in his 52 move match against Aniket Mohapatra from India. As a participant of previous tournaments, including the Junior World Chess Championship for People with Disabilities Griffin shared his story with chess.com earlier on this year. It is great to see so many young players take the opportunity to test their skills on the board against some more seasoned opponents.
All in all, the first day of play didn't bring too many surprises in the matches but we are sure that we will see some interesting games over the next couple of days. The full results of Round 1 can be found on Tornelo, where you can also follow the action of the remaining rounds.