Friday in Nashville: Shoutouts and Staredowns

The first day is in the books at the Elementary National Championships in Nashville, and over two dozen players have perfect scores in the K-1, K-3, K-5 and K-6 Championship sections. IM Eric Rosen's spirited US Chess twitter takeover captured the spirit of these early rounds- top seeds mostly dominate with dramatic finales and plenty of personality along the way. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/995099131671662592 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/995091180563165184 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/995092465446252545 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/995106945689407488 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/995025829057957890 https://twitter.com/USChess/status/995020908317347840 Continuing along the trend set at the Junior and High School National Championships, participants wished World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana good luck in his match this November against Magnus Carlsen. The battle cry in Nashville may have been the most spirited so far. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/995003968613994497 Fabiano thanked his enthusiastic supporters. https://www.instagram.com/p/BiPO7FElmSM/?taken-by=us_chess Special events on the first day of the Main Event included a tandem simul with Grandmasters Robert Hess and Irina Krush. https://twitter.com/GM_Hess/status/995001960414801920 The duo scored 24-0, but not without some doubt. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/994978784435757062 Saturday will be an exciting day, with three rounds, and plenty of special events, including a live Perpetual Podcast broadcast, and Nazi Paikidze's appearance at the US Chess Women's Committee girls' room. You can also watch the top boards live at uschesslive.com. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/995089810288267264 Find the results and standings pages here. Follow IM Eric Rosen’s twitter takeovers @USChess and join in the conversation using the hashtag #ElemChessChamps.