This is the first of four companion papers, which analyze a complex eruptive event of 18 November 2003 in AR 10501 and the causes of the largest Solar Cycle 23 geomagnetic storm on 20 November 2003. Analysis of a complete data set, not considered before, reveals a chain of eruptions to which hard X-ray and microwave bursts responded. A filament in AR 10501 was not a passive part of a larger flux rope, as usually considered. The filament erupted and gave origin to a CME. The chain of events was as follows: i) an eruption at 07:29 accompanied by a not reported M1.2 class flare associated with the onset of a first southeastern CME1, which is not responsible for the superstorm; ii) a confined eruption at 07:41 (M3.2 flare) that destabilized the filament; iii) the filament acceleration (07:56); iv) the bifurcation of the eruptive filament that transformed into a large cloud; v) an M3.9 flare in AR 10501 associated to this transformation. The transformation of the filament could be due to its interaction with the magnetic field in the neighborhood of a null point, located at a height of about 100 Mm above the complex formed by ARs 10501, 10503, and their environment. The CORONAS-F/SPIRIT telescope observed the cloud in 304 A as a large Y-shaped darkening, which moved from the bifurcation region to the limb. The masses and kinematics of the cloud and the filament were similar. Remnants of the filament were not observed in the second southwestern CME2, previously regarded as a source of the 20 November superstorm. These facts do not support a simple scenario, in which the interplanetary magnetic cloud is considered as a flux rope formed from a structure initially associated with the pre-eruption filament in AR 10501. Observations suggest a possible additional eruption above the bifurcation region close to solar disk center between 08:07 and 08:17 that could be the source of the superstorm.
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