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Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Wesley So must all win on Thursday or they will be out of the Skilling Open after losing on Day 1 of the quarterfinals. Magnus Carlsen described his victory over Giri as a case of “ugly winning” after having struggled for the first three games. MVL brought down Nakamura’s Berlin Wall in the first game of the day, while Teimour Radjabov struck twice with black pieces to knock down Wesley So in three games. Levon Aronian’s win over Nepo was a nice fight.
You can replay all games from day one of the quarterfinals using the selector below.
And here is the live commentary of the day from Kaya Snare, Jovanka Houska and David Howell.
And from Peter Leko and Tania Sachdev, whom Harikrishna joined midway.
The main difference in knockouts on the Champions Chess Tour compared to the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour is that each match takes place over two days, instead of three. One consequence is that this time the one-day chess can end in a 2: 2 tie, as a tiebreaker only takes place after the mini-match on the second day if the score is level. That will give us a few days with less drama, but not this time, as the four mini-matches were decisive!
Let’s see them one by one:
Carlsen 2.5: 1.5 laps
This match was the most anticipated of the day, as Anish Giri joked the day before:
Magnus knows: if he wins, he wins. If you lose, some tweets will appear! Much at stake.
There were some soft banter before the day started.
But when the actual chess started, Giri headed straight for the jugular with a very sharp opening with the black pieces. During some moves, when both players seemed to be out of preparation, Magnus might have taken control, but instead, it was soon Anish who was on the offensive. In fact, he was totally winning, until move 27.
Magnus, with the white pieces, threatens to face c7, but that threat is essentially just a check. Many moves are good for Black, and the best seems to be 27… Be2 !, with the difficult threat of taking the knight on f3 and devouring the rook on g1. Instead, Anish played 27… Qxe3 +?, and after the exchange of queens, the game ended in a draw.
Kaja Snare asked Magnus about that moment afterward.
Were you surprised when he offered to exchange queens there?
No! I know how it plays!
Go for the giveaways, is that what you mean?
No, I’m just saying it’s kind of a position where it seems like there should be something very, very strong for Black, but maybe it’s not that easy to find, and when you run out of time, it’s easy to go for the kind of simple solution, thinking you swap queens and can at least claim you have some advantage later on, so as long as I don’t see an obvious win I thought I probably would … and good luck to me. !
After that scare, Game 2 was a much calmer draw, while in Game 3 Magnus’s decision to go for an unambitious opening with the white pieces surprised Peter Leko.
Magnus admitted that it hadn’t been great, but he still felt like he had a psychological advantage over his opponent.
Truth be told, in the first three games, overall, he played a little better than me, so I wouldn’t say there was that much, but you can still get the feeling that he still hasn’t gotten over the hump in these matches against me, and You can certainly feel it in some of the decisions, and also in the last game I could feel that he was getting really, really uncomfortable with the situation as it progressed.
In that game, Magnus had the black pieces, and the first hint that he might have a chance of more than a draw came on move 19.
Magnus just captured a knight on e3, and after 19.Rxe3 we might as well have had a very fast draw. Instead, Anish thought for two minutes and went to find 19.fxe3!?, leaving himself with pawns and duplicates that would later be eliminated from their misery by the black king. Magnus summarized the course of the game:
It was just a classic case of being worse, then a little worse, then the same, then a little better, then a lot better, and finally winning! The whole transformation was very, very nice.
When Magnus was asked about Twitter’s rivalry with Anish, he replied:
I stopped responding and started playing better, so that would be the general idea of what I’m doing there now.
Anish still has a chance to fight another day.
Magnus also spoke in his post-match interview about Diego Maradona, the great Argentine footballer whose death Magnus learned of between games.
Garry Kasparov also joined in the reminiscences.
Aronian 2.5: 1.5 Nepomniachtchi
The Carlsen-Giri winner will play Aronian-Nepomniachtchi, and for now it is Levon Aronian who is in front. However, he admitted that it had not been easy at all.
I think yesterday I played very well. Today I didn’t play very well, but I kept my composure. At least I understood that I was losing, but I didn’t give up.
Levon mentioned that he had been very proud of his game the day before against Sergey Karjakin, and especially 17 … Nd5 !!, with the idea of 18.Ne4 Nc3 + !! – “Seeing it fast made me very happy.” His quarter-final against Ian Nepomniachtchi got off to a much smoother start, but the quick draw in the first game would be the only one of the mini-match.
It was Nepo who struck first, and Levon felt like he had been “too excited” after interpreting a new opening idea. Harikrishna displayed some calculation and instincts at Nepo’s speed.
Levon managed to strike back in the next few games, just a couple of moves after Ian missed the chance to force a draw (41… Rxf2 +!). He found a tricky move to give his queen access to the g4 square.
43… Kg7! still seems fine for Black, as Levon pointed out, but after 43… hxg4? 44.Qf5 +! White was winning – Levon’s suspicion was that after 44… Kg7 45.Qxg4 + Kf6 45.e5 + Kxe5 47.Qf4 + your opponent might have missed an important detail.
He felt that Nepo may have intended 47… Rf5, which would be a winning move if it weren’t for the unfortunate 48.Qxh6 #, ending the game on the spot! After
47… Kg6 Levon was gradually winning.
The final game saw Levon spend an extraordinary 8 minutes and 44 seconds on his thirteenth move. He summarized his thought process as: “I was thinking, contemplating, wishing I was on my opponent’s side, all those things!” He decided to direct his pieces in the general direction of the white king, but was not thrilled with his position or the situation of the clock. I was worried?
He was no longer worried. I knew I was losing! And he was very relaxed at the time. I was worried before when I got this position, and then I relaxed … You worry when you at least have some hope!
I was much happier at the time 21… Rae8 appeared on the board.
And then I have a Marshall! Peter knows how I feel about these things: we share a common passion for losing a pawn and trying to beg for a draw.
This was a game in which Black would not be asking for a draw, however, since after 22.bxc6 bxc6 23.Bc3 h5 24.Rab1 Bc7 25.Rb7? Levon was able to jump with the winning sacrifice 25 … Nxh3 +!
After 26.gxh3 Bxg3! Nepo tried the trick 27.d5, waiting in a dream scenario for 27… Rg6? 28.Qxg6! fxg6? 29.Rxg7 + Kf8 30.fxg3 +, but later 27… Qxh3 28.fxg3 Re2! it was time to quit.
They asked Levon about his dog Ponchik, with whom he had celebrated the day before, and he joked, “My purpose is to play nice to give him treats, so that’s motivation!”
Radjabov 2.5: 0.5 So
When Teimour Radjabov first burst onto the chess scene, he was one of the most exciting players with the black pieces, and in this matchup he showed why, although it required a little help. Normally rock solid Wesley So opted for a dark piece sacrifice in the first game and then turned down a tie for replay, with Teimour simply forced to go on offense:
33… Ng5!, threatening Nf3 +, it was a winning move, and although neither player was perfect on the move that followed, Black’s momentum was enough to take the lead in the match.
After a sure draw in Game 2, Wesley seemed to have good chances again with White in Game 3, but 22… Nd5! turned the tables.
23.cxd5? Rac8 +! Suddenly leaves the white king defenseless, but after 23.Kb2 Ba5! it was still White who had to show precision. Wesley could have drawn, but the forward march with 30.Kc5? it was a step too far.
30… Re6! he threatened mate-on-2 with b6.
Wesley “stopped” that playing 31.b6 himself, when 31… Nxc1 ?? it would have been a draw, but 31… Ra5 # it was mate and the end of the mini-match!
MVL 2.5: 1.5 Cheap
One of the most refreshing aspects of the Skilling Open has been the return of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to the openings that have ranked him number one in the world. 2, but which earlier this year I had avoided at big online events. With Black, that means returning to Najdorf and Grünfeld, while with White Maxime is known for being one of the few best players left and willing to take on the main lines of the Berlin Defense.
His first game against Hikaru in the Skilling Open quarterfinals followed MVL-Grischuk of the Candidates Tournament by an astonishing 26 moves, and that game had already been astonishing.
Alexander Grischuk infamously spent 53 minutes on his 18th move, only to be surprised by Maxime’s next move and dedicate another 21 minutes to that as well. He commented:
Again, as with Alekseenko, I did a very stupid thing, thinking for 1 hour almost on Ne7. I was 100% sure, not 99, 100% sure that Maxime was going to play g4. Then when he played h4 he only had minus 1 hour, but in the end maybe it didn’t matter too much because he would pass this 1 hour anyway somehow!
Hikaru limited the contemplation of her new 26th move to just 8 minutes, although it seems like it was a mistake. Maxime didn’t immediately punish him, but this time, unlike the game against Grischuk, he seized his opportunity when the opportunity arose.
32.g4! it was the only winning move, distracting the bishop from covering the e-pawn’s queen square. 32 … Bg6 meets 33.Rf6 !, while in the game after 32… Bxg4 33.e7 there was nothing better than 33… Nd7, allowing 34.exd8 = Q +. Hikaru thought long after that, but Maxime converted her advantage.
Not French. I saw Game 2 as the turning point of the match, as he got into serious trouble in the opening, but somehow managed to survive. Game 3 was a calmer draw, while in Game 4 Hikaru’s attempt to mix things up in the opening seemed to have failed.
To his great credit, the 5-time US champion actually gave Maxime a scare in the end, but the Frenchman didn’t. I held on to win the mini-match.
One reason for how hard Hikaru fought was revealed only afterwards: It seems that he didn’t fully know that the format is to have a second 4-game mini-match on Day 2. Tie-breaks will only take place after that. Hikaru thought the second day was just for tiebreakers, and therefore he was already out!
Maxime knew very well that he was going to face another mini-match against Hikaru, and explained that his strategy would be to try playing normal chess, as “playing four boards is the best way to make accidents happen!”
Nakamura, Giri, So and Nepomniachtchi are due to win now on demand on Thursday, so you really don’t want to miss out on the games. Tune in to all the action starting at 18:00 CET!
See also:
