The Fide Chess Candidates tournament kicked-off in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Wednesday with Wang Hao and Ian Nepomniachtchi getting off to winning starts.

Hao and Nepomniachtchi, both playing with black, defeated Ding Liren and Anish Giri respectively on day one of the Candidates tournament in Russia.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took on Fabiano Caruana and Alexander Grischuk played Kirill Alekseenko in the other two matches of the day and they both ended in draws. Surprisingly enough there were no wins for White on the first day.

The winner of this tournament will get the opportunity to challenge Magnus Carlsen for his world championships crown.

Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand is doing commentary for the tournament as he couldn’t return home from the Bundesliga Chess League in Germany due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Footage of Anand doing commentary for the Candidates tournament shows him analysing the game in Spanish. This is the 50-year-old’s debut as a commentator.