Chess: Caruana edges Bucharest while Ding narrowly avoids finishing bottom

Fabiano Caruana edged out a quartet of elite rivals by half a point in the Superbet Classic at Bucharest, as the US champion added to his long list of international victories. The first stage of the Grand Chess Tour was a low scoring tournament, where the 30-year-old won two games and drew seven.

It was a subdued performance compared to Caruana’s youthful peak at the 2014 Sinquefield Cup, where he won seven games in a row and recorded a 3098 rating result, which is still the best in history at elite level. The 30-year-old was never under pressure, and missed winning chances against his main rival, Alireza Firouzja, before and even just after the move 40 time control. Firouzja said he would have been losing after 41 Rc7! instead of 41 Nc4?

As it was, Firouzja proved the most significant gainer from the event. The Iran-born 19-year-old began rustily following his break to follow an alternative career in fashion design, then surged to lead before dropping back. Only 12 of the 45 games at Bucharest were decisive, and Firouzja was involved in five of them. He also jumped to No 2 in the live ratings.

Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi competed in Bucharest just a week after their bruising world title match in Kazakhstan, and fatigue badly affected their results. Ding even got within one game of becoming the first reigning world champion to finish last in a tournament, only escaping the bottom with a good final-round win against the Romanian wildcard Bogdan Deac.

On Sunday the action moves to the Superbet Rapid and Blitz at Warsaw and the return of the world No 1 and now ex-world champion, Magnus Carlsen. Recently, Carlsen has been competing mainly at the poker table, but he also kept in shape for chess last week with an