Results for Round 1:

Inarkiev Ernesto                       - Kamsky Gata 0-1
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar            - Svidler Peter .5-.5
Carlsen Magnus                       - Wang Yue .5-.5
Gashimov Vugar                       - Bacrot Etienne .5-.5
Radjabov Teimur                      - Adams Michael .5-.5
Cheparinov Ivan                       - Grischuk Alexander 0-1
Karjakin Sergey                        - Navara David .5-.5

A few comments on the games:

Inarkiev-Kamsky saw both sides play a large number of theoretical moves, when Kamsky came up with an equalising improvement. Inarkiev allowed Black too much counterplay on the kingside and was outplayed from there.

Mamedyarov-Svidler featured a Four Pawns Attack in the King's Indian; White tried the novelty 8.Ne5, although I am unsure if it will find any followers. White has to try for a win with 16.b3 Ne4 17.Kb2 if he is to justify his previous play.

Carlsen-Wang Yue was not overly interesting, but as it turned out Black equalised fairly easily and curiously Black was certainly not worse in the endgame in spite of his doubled pawns on the queenside.

I didn't see enough of Gashimov-Bacrot to make a clear evaluation, but it looks as though Bacrot equalised very easily; Gashimov's concept of 15.Bf6 to control d5 does not seem effective because Black's two bishops always give him counterplay. Perhaps 19.c3 was stronger, supporting the b4-pawn and controlling d4.

Radjabov-Adams was not all that interesting, although still quite instructive; Adams looked slightly worse out of the opening, but he defended accurately and even had White on the back foot near the end of the game. However, time constraints and the position forced him to take the draw by perpetual check.

In Cheparinov-Grischuk, Ivan seemed to be both outprepared and outplayed. His move of 25.Ng1? is incomprehensible to me, given that simply 25...Rg3! is much better for Black. Grischuk's 21...d4! novelty may have been influenced by Fritz, but in any case it is very theoretically important, since in the past White had scored very well with 18.Rb4.

Finally, Karjakin-Navara saw Black equalise out of the opening; Karjakin tried to put pressure on him, but Navara's strong exchange sacrifice led to perpetual check.

The games haven't started yet on ICC, but on the official website, the games have already started, although the moves aren't available yet.

Mamedyarov-Svidler looks like a King's Indian, Carlsen-Wang Yue either a Rossolimo or Ruy Lopez, Radjabov-Adams is probably an Exchange Spanish, Karjakin-Navara hasn't started yet, Inarkiev-Kamsky has started 1.e4 e5, Cheparinov-Grischuk looks like a Winawer French with 7.Qg4, and Gashimov-Bacrot hasn't started yet.

Sorry about replying to my own post, but the Round 1 pairings and time when the round starts has been announced: The round starts at 19:00, local time (for Azerbaijan, that is). Which means that the first round should start at 7:00 AM ICC time today (ie in 3 hours time).

By the way, here are the pairings:

Inarkiev Ernesto                       - Kamsky Gata
Mamedyarov Shakhriyar            - Svidler Peter
Carlsen Magnus                       - Wang Yue
Gashimov Vugar                       - Bacrot Etienne
Radjabov Teimur                      - Adams Michael
Cheparinov Ivan                       - Grischuk Alexander
Karjakin Sergey                        - Navara David

Any pre-game predictions? Of all games, I reckon Mamedyarov-Svidler and Radjabov-Adams will be the main games to watch.

There should also be good coverage of the event on www.chessvibes.com, and ChessBase might be able to get someone such as GM Rogozenko to analyse the games of some of the rounds for their site. 

Here is the latest news story by ChessVibes on the Grand Prix: http://www.chessvibes.com/tournaments/upcoming-fide-grand-prix-2008-baku/. There should also be interviews and post-mortems available for viewing on that site as well for each round.

Not surprisingly, on the above site Carlsen is the favourite for winning the Baku tournament (he is after all the top seed) with 57% of the votes, with Kamsky next on 14% - as of now, 174 votes have been cast. I voted for Carlsen, by the way.

I personally think that the tournament will be a three-horse race between the young guns Carlsen, Radjabov and Karjakin. Mamedyarov is obviously a serious contender for first place, but imo he is a bit too experimental with his openings to be a favourite for winning the tournament (eg look at his Wijk Aan Zee 2008 and 2007 tournaments).

Obviously it is impossible to predict the winner a tournament consisting solely of strong players, but that is my opinion. In such a long tournament of 13 rounds, a high level of energy is required to win the tournament, and the young guard certainly have this prerequisite.

P.S To avoid any confusion, by "young guard" I am referring to the players who will most likely replace the very top players of today, ie the "old guard". Indeed, the "young guard" are already moving up towards the current ranks of the "old guard".

Indeed, it would be good to have a poll for this tournament! I tried to create two polls on the one thread to create a complete poll, but I could only make a 10-option poll, so I deleted it.

It will be very interesting to see who wins the tournament!