Aimchess US Rapid day 1

Levon Aronian lived dangerously as he beat Liem Quang Le, Eric Hansen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to take the sole lead with 4/5 after Day 1 of the Aimchess US Rapid, the penultimate event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Magnus Carlsen got off to a dream start by beating Wesley So, but ended half a point behind Levon after getting mated by Alireza Firouzja. MVL has work to do to qualify, as does World Cup winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who lost his first two games and remains winless at the bottom of the table.

There are still two days and ten rounds to go before the eight qualifiers for the knockout are determined, so everything remains up for grabs. Follow all the action here on chess24 each day from 11:00 ET/17:00 CEST/20:30 IST.

See also:

• Champions Chess Tour website
• All the Aimchess US Rapid action with computer analysis and live commentary: Prelims, Knockout
• Wesley So triumphs in the Chessable Masters