Carlsen is one of the gold favorites in the tournament in the Kazakh city of Almaty. He brilliantly secured a three-game winning streak in the opener.
Carlsen opened with a win over Armenian Samvel Ter-Sahakjan on black, before Canada’s Eric Hansen was beaten in game number two on white. In the third game against Yevgenij Tomasevsky of Russia, he was trailing for a long time, but with a good game he turned things around and won.
In both of the first two games, the opposition had an early advantage before the Norwegian established solid positions and won in controlled fashion. Hansen is part of the Carlsen Offerspill chess club, which is also the largest chess club in Norway.
– It was hard for him to come up with a good plan, and after that he overlooked something. It was a pleasure to meet him, Carlsen told NRK after the win over Hansen.
13 rounds will be played. There are two games left on Monday.
Carlsen has won WC in rapid chess three times since 2014, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18) is the reigning champion. Carlsen number three last year.
There was tension over whether Carlsen would have played had he met American Hans Niemann during the tournament. Niemann had subpoenaed Carlsen and a number of other chess figures because they accused him of cheating. Carlsen has so far refused to play against Niemann when they meet.
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