Magnus Carlsen Invitational QF: Decisive Matches

Prelude to another ending?

Wesley So is the current leader of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The American has as many points as Teimour Radjabov, but he has one more victory in the tournament than his colleague: three events have been played so far in the series; So he won two and Radjabov won one. Surprisingly, So got his two wins after beating Magnus Carlsen in the final.

In the fourth event of the tour, So and Carlsen were seeded on opposite sides of the group and both earned 2½: ½ wins in the opening sets of their quarterfinal matches; the symmetry of their results makes us think that we could easily see a three pipes if they continue to outperform their rivals. However, it won’t be easy as the Opera Euro Rapid finalists face explosive opponents: Levon Aronian and Alireza Firouzja are fully capable of coming back in the second sets on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the opening sets of Anish Giri v Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Hikaru Nakamura v Ian Nepomniachtchi were tied. In both cases, the contenders first traded wins and then tied the remaining games. No less than 8 (out of 14) games ended decisively in the first mini-matches of the quarterfinals.

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Carlsen 2½: ½ Aronian

The world champion then described his first-set win over Aronian as comfortable, explaining that he expects his rival to fight on the second day of the quarterfinals. Carlsen won the first two games in Tuesday’s mini-match, beating his opponent from positions without a queen:

Playing black and already in the driver’s seat, Carlsen continued with 31 … g3, leaving the g4 square for his bishop. Aronian resigned after 32.Nxc5 Bg4 33.Rxd6 cxd6:

Carlsen was a pawn up in a rook ending in Game 3, but accepting a draw was enough to get ahead on the scoreboard.

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

So 2½: ½ Firouzja

So’s two victories came after the American displayed superior technique in fairly complex finishes. GM Karsten Müller took a closer look at both (see below). In the second game, it all came down to a single Firouzja mistake:

57.Rd8 Failed 57 … Rxd8 58.Rxd8 Nd2 + 59.Ke2 Nxe4 + 60.Ke3 Nxf6 +:

The black knight has done a good job, jumping from b3 to f6 in just three moves. 61.gxf6 + Kxf6 and the pure rook ending is winning for Black thanks to his passer on row a.

Karsten Müller endgame analysis (two games)

Nakamura 2: 2 Nepomniachtchi

The two fast-play specialists traded victories in the first two games, each winning with the white pieces. While Nakamura defeated Nepomniachtchi’s Sicilian tactically, the Russian defeated his famous opponent by playing an entrepreneurial variant against the Berlin Defense:

Something has clearly gone wrong with the Negro, but his 22 … c5 it simply gave away the game in one move. Nepo crashed with 23.Rxf8 and Naka resigned before allowing 23 … Kxf8 24.Bxe7 + Kxe7 25.Rxg7 + Kf8 26.Rf7 + Kg8 27.Nf6 +:

After a draw in Game 3, Nepomniachtchi reached a bishop ending of the same color with a pawn up, but could not find the precise continuations that would have given him a vital victory in the first set.

Giri 2: 2 Vachier-Lagrave

Unlike Naka and Nepo, Giri and Vachier-Lagrave traded victories with black in the first two games of their mini-match. Giri had the advantage in Game 1, but chose the wrong strategy on move 28:

White has more space and other positional advantages, so the quiet 28.a3 or the improved 28.Bd3 would have kept his advantage, and Black needed to find a way to untangle his pieces. Instead, Giri was tempted to do it with 28.c4.

White was no worse at the time, but allowed Black to get tactical resources to free his pieces. Giri misplayed the tactical skirmish that followed and ended up losing the game.

The Dutchman bounced back in game 2, and the draw in the last two matches of the day meant the players entered Day 2 of the quarterfinals with the score tied. Giri tweeted:

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