The first round in Miami saw the typically imbalanced Swiss pairings, with no major upsets on the top boards.

 Izoria won a nice game against John Bick, featuring an interesting exchange sacrifice in the Nimzo.

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On board two, Chris Mabe threw everything at his GM opponent, Viktor Mikhalevski and achieved an excellent attacking position. He probably should have either taken a time-out to capture the knight on a8 on move 19. He also could have played 20...Nxg4 with a good attack instead of Be1 which is pretty but allows Be3, defending f2 and threatening e1 at the same time.

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Samford Scholar and CLO contributor Josh Friedel won a textbook attacking game in the 6.f4 variation of the Najdorf.

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The games in the next few days will surely be even more exciting, as the top players begin to face off. You can check out the Miami games live on monroi.com. Also, return to uschess.org for a final report!