The first game of the World Cup Final between Peter Svidler and Sergey Karjakin saw the former score a convincing victory over his younger compatriot. This important win has put Svidler 1-0 ahead in this best-of-four finals.
The Svidler-Karjakin game took off with the King’s Indian Attack, a slightly surprising decision on Svidler’s part. Although the opening battle resulted in equality, Svidler was successful in grabbing the initiative as soon as the middlegame commenced. Karjakin, a strong defender in general, failed to tackle Svidler’s initiative effectively and soon, Svidler’s position was quite better. As the game progressed, Karjakin went further astray which allowed the 7-time Russian Champion to decide the matters on move 29.
Having suffered a disappointing defeat, Karjakin would be raring to equalize the scores at the earliest with just 3 more games to go in the classical section of the match.