Levon Aronian of Armenia continued with his excellent form to beat Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi as the grandmasters kickstarted their campaigns in the Sinquefield Cup, a part of the Grand Chess tour.

Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw with nemesis Hikaru Nakamura of United States, Sergey Karjakin was a class act against compatriot Peter Svidler, while French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave landed a crushing blow to the aspirations of Wesley So of United States.

Meanwhile, the game between American Fabiano Caruana and World Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway ended in a draw.