Romanian chess player Richard Rapport drew with the world vice-champion, Russian Yan Nepomniachy, on the first day of the Superbet Chess Classic Romania tournament from Bucharest, News.ro reports.

Romanian Richard Rapport drew with Russian Yan Nepomniaschi, vice-champion of the world chess

Richard Rapport (13th in the world) is one of two Romanian representatives in the event, along with Bohdan Deac, who is tied with Fabiano Caruana.

The opening of the first day of competition, on Saturday, saw a symbolic first move between Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, present at the event in Bucharest, and Superbet ambassador Mihai Leu, the first professional boxing world champion from Romania.

In other matches on Saturday, world champion Dean Leeren and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew, as did Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Anish Giri.

Instead, Wesley So won the match against Alireza Firuzzi.

Schedule of the 2nd round, from Sunday:

Maxim Vachier-Lagrave – Wesley So

Anish Giri – Alireza Firuja

Richard Rapport – Jan-Krzysztof Dud

Bohdan Dyak – Yan Nepomniachy

Dean Leeren – Fabiano Caruana

The first move on Sunday will be made by former Romanian football player Gheorghe Craivoeanu.

Know:

• Superbet Chess Classic Romania 2023 in Bucharest is the first of five stages of the Grand Chess Tour 2023 international tournament.

• Chess players (the 10 greatest grandmasters in the world, including the world champion and Romania’s two most valuable chess players at the moment) play in a tournament system (each against each) and receive points.

• The winner of the stage will be announced at the end of the tournament based on points.

• The prizes of the Bucharest competition reach 350,000 dollars. Prizes for the entire scheme reach 1.4 million dollars.

• For the first time, this year’s edition will also have a bonus prize pool worth $175,000, which will be awarded to the top three players at the end of the entire competition.