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The final of the Skilling Open will be played between GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Wesley So, who maintained their lead in their second semi-finals. Carlsen played 2-2 against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, while So did the same, with four draws, against GM Hikaru Nakamura. The final will start on Sunday.
Carlsen vs. Nepomniachtchi
It’s a sign of greatness that even when he’s not in his best shape, Carlsen still makes it to the final. In his post-match interview, he noted that so far in this tournament he has not been able to play two good matches in a row.
When asked how his day was, the world champion replied: “It has been like most of the others, frankly: very difficult! I have not been able to gain much momentum.”
It was Nepomniachtchi who came out on top of a roller coaster from a first game. His walk from king to f3 in the middle game was brave, but could have been disproved. Carlsen missed his chance and soon his own king was in trouble:
For the second game, Carlsen tried the Alapin Sicilian, an opening he almost never plays. The database shows only one set of bullets that the Norwegian won against GM Rauf Mamedov in August this year.
Nonetheless, the players followed no less than 16 theoretical moves, and eventually Nepomniachtchi was able to be satisfied with his position outside the opening. Carlsen tried to create a few chances for the enemy king, but they weren’t many. Nepomniachtchi was close to making a comfortable draw when he stumbled on a tactic:
“Even the game that I won was very unclear, and I think at some point I was worse,” Carlsen said. “Frankly, I’m not playing that well, but it’s been enough so far. I think I have to step up in the final because Wesley is extremely strong.”
Of the two draws that followed, there is a moment that we can highlight for the possibility of a nice checkmate that could have happened, as pointed out by our member and good friend of this author, @ forest76:
Carlsen expects a tough final: “When [So’s] At the top of your game, it is very difficult to find obvious weaknesses. Sometimes it’s a bit in your own head; that’s the only thing that can hurt you. He is one of the people I find the most difficult to play against because he rarely makes a tactical or positional mistake. I will have to be on top of my game to win. “
Nakamura vs. So
Although all four games ended in draws, the other match was also quite tense. He called it “a very confusing day” as a result of the poor quality of chess: “I think Hikaru and I were not playing well.”
He came close to winning the first game after beating Nakamura in the opening. Also later in the game, So could have won, but couldn’t. “Not winning the first game was very discouraging, of course,” he said.
The same scenario occurred in the second game, where So once again ruined a completely winning position. After these two dramatic games, it looked like it was going to be Nakamura’s day.
“Hikaru is very tactical and very slick, and he takes every opportunity, and he never gives up,” So said afterward. “He has tremendous fighting spirit, so he will keep fighting until he has no chance left. When we have a minute or two left on the clock, he plays much better, whereas I just freak out with very little time.”
A quick draw in the third game was what So needed to calm down a bit. In another confusing fourth game, he was the one who kept a cool head on complications this time.
“I’m still very mystified with what happened in the last game because I was fighting for my life and I was trying to generate a countergame, and then he just made a mistake with his horse at the end,” said the winner.
As it turned out, Nakamura’s decisive mistake was a later move, although the result would have been the same. That means it was on move 26 that he lost his chances to win the game and force a tiebreaker.
The final will be played again over two days with two matches of four matches on Sunday and Monday. If the score is locked 1-1, a tiebreaker will be played at the end of the second day.
Last year, So defeated Carlsen in the final of the Fischer Random World Championship. The American player readily admitted that it is a completely different game, but still, it seems that in the coming days he will have more chances than ever to beat Carlsen at regular chess.
All the games
The Chess24 Champions Chess Tour Skilling Open will take place from November 22 to 30. The preliminary phase was a fast round-robin of 16 players (15 + 10). The top eight players advanced to a six-day knockout that will consist of two days of four-game snap games, which can advance to blitz (5 + 3) and armageddon tiebreaks (White has five minutes, Black four without increment) . if the elimination match is tied after the second day. The prize pool is $ 100,000 with $ 30,000 for first place.
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