Warsaw, May 19 (PTI) Former world champion and Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand got off to a flying start in the Rapid section of the Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland chess tournament here on Thursday, registering wins in the first three rounds.

Playing as a wildcard, the Indian chess maestro defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland in the first round, before getting the better of American Wesley So and ended the day one of the tournament with a win over Anton Korobov of Ukraine.

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The veteran Indian star took the early lead in the 10-player tournament, which features rapid and blitz games.

Pitted against local player Wojtaszek in the first round, Anand prevailed in 36 moves in a Ruy Lopez game and tamed So in a 30-game affair in the second round.

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Against Korobov in the third round, he won in 28 moves in a French Euwe variation game to wrap up a superb first day.

Hungary's Richard Rapport is second behind Anand with a win, a loss and a draw. He beat Kirill Shevchenko of Ukraine, drew with Lev Aronian and lost to Polish Jan-Kryrzstof Duda in the first, second and third rounds respectively.

The event, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour, boasts of a strong field that includes Fabiano Caruana of USA, Aronian, So and Rappor apart from Anand.

After nine rounds of Rapid, the players will take part in a Blitz event over two days with each player coming up against the nine others twice.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)