Anatoly Karpov, who kept out of the Linares event earlier this month, opened in good form registering wins in both blindfold and rapid play. Predrag Nikolic of Bosnia too has two points.

Ljubojevic played the Sicilian Defence and won in 34 moves. Anand attempted hard for a win and in the process was about to lose a piece, and resigned when threatened with a mate. In the blindfold game Anand had black. He deployed a Slav Defence and the game ended in a draw in 44 moves.

Karpov scored a good win in semi-Slav against Boris Gelfand in 56 moves in rapidplay and then in blindfold he again won, this time with black. The blindfold game was a Nimzo Indian.

In the blindfold games each player is in front of a screenwith an empty chessboard. He makes his moves by mouse click or keyboard. The opponent's moves are announced on the screen. Checking legality of moves and time registration are automatic. Although the players always see an empty board, the arbiters and audience can follow the game on video screens not visible to the payers.

Results Rapid Play (Round 1):
Karpov (1) bt Gelfand (0); Kramnik (1) bt Topalov (0); Van Wely (1) bt Shirov (0); Piket (0.5) drew Lautier (0.5); Anand (0) lost Ljubojevic (1); Ivanchuk (0) lost Nikolic (1). Blindfold (Round 1): Lautier (1) bt Piket (0); Nikolic (1) bt Ivanchuk (0); Shirov (1) bt Van Wely (0); Ljubojevic (0.5) drew Anand (0.5); Topalov (0.5) drew Kramnik (0.5); Gelfand (0) lost Karpov (1).